Obiter Dicta Issue 5 - October 27, 2014 | Page 7

SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT Monday, October 27, 2014   7 Sports and Real Life What the Experience of One Sports Journalist Can Tell Us About Media in Canada O rob hamilton › staff writer n Februa r y 15 t h 2014 , Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punched his fiancée in the head in the elevator of an Atlantic City casino, knocking her unconscious. The casino’s cameras captured the incident, the details of which became known to the Ravens mere hours later. Sometime thereafter, the National Football League also became aware of Rice’s actions and the existence of the videos. Precisely when the league came to know about the incident has engendered considerable controversy. In short, the league gave Rice a laughably tepid twogame suspension, after which video of the incident surfaced publicly. The league then went into damage-control mode, blaming Rice for not being forthcoming with them about the contents of the videos, absolving themselves of responsibility. Subsequent reporting, however, cast these claims into serious doubt. It has become clear that both the team and the league knew the true nature of the incident before Rice’s disciplinary hearing and before the videos became public. Despite this, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, in a post hoc attempt to justify the league’s insipid response and perfidio