The life of Ray Rice and the state of the National Football League went up in flames on September 8, 2014, as a video released by TMZ sports showed former Baltimore Ravens player Rice punching his wife and knocking her out cold.  In turn, Rice was indefinitely suspended from the NFL, and the Baltimore Ravens later released him.

Since then, according to foxsports.com, in a statement released from Rice to ESPN, he said, “I have to be strong for my wife. She is so strong. We are in good spirits. We have a lot of people praying for us and we’ll continue to support each other. I have to be there for [Janay] and my family right now and work through this.”

Also, the NFL has found itself in a world of hurt as this video, after a law enforcement officer reported to ESPN  that he had sent a DVD copy of the security camera video to an NFL office and included his contact information.  He, however, asked the Associated Press not to release the name of the NFL executive, for fear that the information would identify the law enforcement official as the source.

The NFL still maintain the notion that they didn’t receive this video until this week, as NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said to ESPN, “We are not aware of anyone in our office who possessed or saw the video before it was made public on Monday. We will look into it.”

McIntosh students and faculty have been weighing in on the issue.

Sophomore Sahil Gavlani said, “I believe it is morally wrong that the NFL turned a blind eye [to this situation].”

Mrs. Maggie Walls, English teacher, said, “The Ray Rice incident brings much needed attention to the brutality of domestic violence and underscores the difficulty of combating such atrocities.  We are surrounded by media that continually objectifies women and then we cry foul when a woman is treated as an object — destroyed, discarded, dragged from an elevator. We breed violence and glorify violence. What I don’t understand is why we are shocked by the violence. I regret that the NFL did not take the opportunity to send a loud and clear message, but the NFL, or any other sports organization/university for that matter, has never taken the moral high ground. Truthfully, Michael Vick garnered more negative attention for fighting dogs. What does that say about their/our views of women and violence? We have to stop allowing the brutalization and objectification of our daughters, our sisters, our wives, and our mothers.”