Showing posts with label Baltimore Ravens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baltimore Ravens. Show all posts

Sunday, October 19, 2014

How Ray Rice Could Be Reinstated To The NFL--Within A Month

Ray Rice / Source:  www.deadspin.com
By Jason Canfora, Oct. 19, 2014, Cbssports.com

Former Ravens running back Ray Rice remains suspended indefinitely following the publication of the video of him striking his now-wife, Janay, in a casino elevator, but he could be reinstated within the next four weeks, sources said.

An appeal hearing date has been set, with a final decision expected to come in an expeditious manner thereafter, and all of that could be resolved by mid-November, which would conceivably allow Rice to sign with another team this season.

Perhaps, even if reinstated, teams will find him too controversial to sign, but there is every expectation his playing status will be resolved before the NFL's investigation into its handling of his case, being conducted by former FBI chief Robert Mueller, is completed.

Former U.S. District Court Judge Barbara S. Jones is handling the appeal as a neutral, third-party arbitrator, and all sides in the case have agreed to a date to conduct the hearing in the near future. That date could change somewhat based on what Jones rules this week on some requests the NFLPA made to have certain materials available to them in discovery, but sources said Rice's legal team has made it explicitly clear it has no desire to wait until the NFL and the NFLPA's investigations are concluded to resolve the matter of this suspension appeal.


Read the full story:  www.cbssports.com

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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

ESPN: Owner Pins Report on Ray Rice Camp (Significant Amount Of Info "Manufactured")

Baltimore Ravens Owner Steve Bisciotti / AP
ESPN.com News Service, Sept. 22, 2014, Espn.go.com

Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti responded Monday to an ESPN investigative report into the team's handling of Ray Rice's domestic abuse case, saying that a significant amount of the information in the story was "manufactured" from accounts provided by the running back's inner circle.

Bisciotti addressed the ESPN "Outside the Lines" report during a 45-minute news conference, saying he believes that Rice's camp is attempting to "build a case for reinstatement."

AP Photo/Patrick SemanskyRavens owner Steve Bisciotti was critical of a report by ESPN's "Outside the Lines" regarding the team's handling of the Ray Rice case.

"The majority of the sources [from the report] are people that work for Ray," Bisciotti said. "Almost everything in there is anonymous, but it's clear from the subject matter that it's Ray's attorney, it's Ray's agent, it's Ray's friends.

"I'm not mad at those guys for writing the article," Bisciotti also said. He added he wished that ESPN had said who it interviewed for the story, claiming it was mostly people who were sympathetic to Rice's potential reinstatement.

ESPN OTL reporter Don Van Natta, appearing on the network after Bisciotti's news conference, said that "Outside the Lines" interviewed more than 20 sources over 11 days -- team officials, current and former league officials, NFL Players Association representatives and associates, advisers and friends of Rice.

"Unfortunately, it's an assumption [Bisciotti] is making. ... It's an oversimplification of the work we put into this story," Van Natta said.

"We stand by our reporting," an ESPN spokesperson said Monday.

"Outside the Lines" reported Friday that Bisciotti, Ravens president Dick Cass and general manager Ozzie Newsome tried to persuade NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to be lenient with Rice following the former Raven's February arrest.

The Ravens released Rice on Sept. 8 after TMZ Sports released a video of the running back hitting his then-fiancee, Janay Palmer, in an Atlantic City hotel casino elevator, knocking her unconscious. The NFL suspended Rice indefinitely shortly after he was released by the team.

Read the full story:  www.espn.go.com


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Monday, September 22, 2014

7,000 Fans Trade In Ray Rice Jerseys 



By Fox News, Sept. 20, 2014, Foxbaltimore.com

The Baltimore Ravens addressed the media Saturday afternoon, providing statistics for the Ray Rice Jersey exchange. Kevin Byrne from the Ravens told reporters that as of noon Saturday 7,115 people had come to the Ravens team store. They exchanged 5,595 jerseys and gave more than 2,400 vouchers for people to come back and get jerseys after they ran out. Rice jerseys were exchanged for Steve Smith, Haloti Ngata, Terrell Suggs, Justin Tucker and Elvis Dumervil jerseys. Joe Flacco and Torrey Smith were the most popular jerseys that fans requested. The old jerseys are not recyclable and will be given to companies that deal in scrap. Fans with vouchers are scheduled to get their new jerseys October 25th, the Ravens are waiting for Nike to restock the supply. Fans have until 3pm Saturday to exchange a Ray Rice jersey.

Source:  www.foxbaltimore.com


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Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Rice, Peterson, McDonald--What About Ray Lewis?

Ray Lewis
Photo:  Evan Habeeb, USA Today
By Brent Schrotenboer, Jun. 18, 2013, USAToday.com

Priscilla Lollar still doesn't believe her son is dead.

Any day now, she hopes he might finally return from Atlanta, walking through the door of her home in Akron, Ohio, as if nothing happened on the morning of Jan. 31, 2000.

"If I truly accept that he's not coming back ... " says Lollar, her voice trailing off. "I don't discuss him in the past. I don't really acknowledge anything."

Deep down, she knows he's gone. She knows it every time she turns on the television and sees Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis — a reminder that her son, Richard, has been dead for 13 years, stabbed to death outside a nightclub in Atlanta, along with his friend from Akron, Jacinth Baker.

Their murders remain unsolved. But as the anniversary of their deaths approaches — and as Lewis dances into the sunset of his NFL career — the victims' relatives are still seething at him. While Priscilla Lollar says she's "numb" to Lewis, others want answers. And justice.

"My nephew was brutally beaten and murdered and nobody is paying for it," Baker's uncle, Greg Wilson, told USA TODAY Sports. "Everything is so fresh in our mind, it's just like it happened yesterday. We'll never forget this."

Only Lewis pleaded guilty in relation to the case: for obstruction of justice, a misdemeanor. He originally was charged with two counts of murder but struck a deal with prosecutors in exchange for his testimony against two of his companions that night, Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting.

Lewis never directly linked his two friends to the killings, and they were acquitted. Lewis had testified that Oakley, Sweeting and another man had gone to a sporting goods store the previous day to buy knives. Baker's blood later was found in Lewis' limo. Having fled the crime scene, Lewis told the limo's passengers to "keep their mouths shut." The white suit Lewis was wearing that night — on Super Bowl Sunday — never was found.

"I'm not trying to end my career like this," Lewis said in his hotel that night, according to the testimony of a female passenger in the limo.

He didn't. For his punishment, Lewis received one year of probation and a $250,000 fine by the NFL.


Read the full story:  www.usatoday.com

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Monday, September 15, 2014

Women's Group To Fly Banner Over NFL Stadium Calling For Goodell Ouster

NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell
Source:  Kyle Terada / USA Today Sports
By Curtis Skinner, Dan Whitcomb and Kim Coghil, Sept. 13, 2014, Reuters.com

(Reuters) - A women's rights group will fly banners over pro football stadiums on Sunday calling on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to resign over his handling of former Baltimore Ravens star Ray Rice's domestic violence case, the group said.

The organization, UltraViolet, said it will fly banners reading, "#GoodellMustGo," over stadiums in Cleveland, New Jersey and San Francisco ahead of Sunday games. The group says it also will fly the message before a Monday night game to be played in Indianapolis.

The demonstration comes as the league scrambles to manage criticism over its handling of Ray Rice, who was suspended for only two games in July after he knocked out his then-fiancée and now-wife Janay Palmer with a punch to the face.

The three-time Pro Bowler was cut by the Ravens and indefinitely suspended from the league earlier this week after celebrity news website TMZ on Monday published a security video of the incident taken inside a New Jersey casino elevator.

"It is time for Roger Goodell to resign, and for the NFL to get serious about its commitment to ending violence against women within the league," UltraViolet co-founder Nita Chaudhary said in a written statement.

Read the full story:  
www.reuters.com

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Sunday, September 14, 2014

NFL Players Union May Appeal Ray Rice’s Indefinite Suspension

By Mike Hellgren, Sept. 12, 2014, Baltimore.cbslocal.com

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — New developments in the ongoing Ray Rice saga. The players union left open the possibility it will fight Rice’s indefinite suspension from the league.

Investigator Mike Hellgren has more on what the NFL commissioner told the union in a new letter.

In the letter, Commissioner Roger Goodell says the video shows “a starkly different sequence of events” from what Rice and representatives told him at a meeting. But once again, anonymous sources are denying Goodell’s version of events.

The players union may appeal Ray Rice’s indefinite suspension from the NFL. In a new formal letter to the union, the commissioner says Rice met with him in June and never told him about the punch.

He described that meeting in his exclusive CBS interview.

“When we met with Ray Rice and his representatives, it was ambiguous about what actually happened,” Goodell said.

But four sources tell ESPN Rice clearly mentioned the punch: “A fifth source with knowledge of the meeting said Rice only told Goodell he had slapped his fiancee.”

“As a man, I can’t believe that he saw that video and gave a two-game suspension,” said Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti.


Read the full story:  www.baltimore.cbslocal.com

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Friday, September 12, 2014

Ravens Fans, Men And Women, Wear Ray Rice Jerseys At Thursday Night Game 


DC News FOX 5 DC WTTG

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Sunday, May 25, 2014

By New York Daily News Staff, May 23, 2014, Nydailynews.com

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Ravens running back Ray Rice apparently is more out of tune than most athletes when asking for the public’s forgiveness.

On Feb. 15, Rice was arrested on assault charges for allegedly striking his wife and sending her to the ground in an altercation in Atlantic City.

At a press conference Friday filled with self-pity, in which he did not apologize to his wife, Janay Palmer, Rice said he had “failed miserably.”

What he really appeared to fail at was an apology. “I failed miserably, but I wouldn’t call myself a failure because failure is not getting knocked down. It’s not getting up,” he said while addressing media for the first time since video surfaced of him dragging Palmer out of a casino elevator.

Rice even had Palmer speak and apologize, even though she was the victim of the alleged assault. “I do deeply regret the role I played in the incident that night,” she said. “But I can say that I am happy that we continue to work through it together. I love Ray, and I know that he will continue to prove himself not only to you all, but to the community, and I know he will gain your respect back in due time."

Read the full story:  www.nydailynews.com


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