Could Rice’s Reinstatement Mean The Ravens Owe Some Dough?
Now that an independent arbitrator has ruled the NFL had no new evidence to support their second suspension of Ray Rice, the question is how does this affect Rice’s other case? In October, Rice filed a separate grievance against the Baltimore Ravens for wrongful termination. You may remember that after the release of the second video by TMZ, the Ravens actually released Rice before Roger Goodell added the indefinite suspension. Because the team could claim just cause, and the NFL notoriously has no guaranteed contracts, you’d think one case has nothing to do with the other. But as NBC’s Mike Florio points out, the very meeting with Goodell that Judge Barbara S. Jones cited in her ruling could be used against the Ravens:
Helping Rice’s cause will be some of the same testimony that aided his case against the league. With witnesses like G.M. Ozzie Newsome admitting that Rice had acknowledged hitting Janay Palmer Rice in the elevator on February 15, the Ravens can’t credibly claim that they didn’t know what had happened or that Rice had lied about it.
Essentially, Rice’s argument is the same in both cases: with all the facts of the incident being known since June 16th, all parties involved decided his punishment (or lack thereof) before September 8th, and with no new information coming from the video, no new action should’ve been taken (or allowed by Article 46 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement). Which means that in this case, the Ravens had no reason to fire Rice since they already had knowledge of his conduct and were willing to move forward with it. If successful, Rice could be reimbursed for the nine games he would’ve been paid, and the final five weeks if he’s not signed by another team. If that happens, the Ravens would owe Rice $3.5M: not a large amount, but owners famously never like giving players cash when they don’t want to.
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