Hold off on the applause for the Baltimore Ravens.
Sure, they cut Ray Rice on Monday. It came after the team's brain trust held a quick huddle in team owner Steve Bisciotti's office.
They should have done that months ago, rather than trying to protect his image.
The Ravens were forced to do the right thing, finally, amid renewed furor ignited after TMZ released the video to reveal what actually occurred inside that elevator at a hotel in Atlantic City in February, when Rice's powerful left hook left Janay Palmer – then his fiancée, now his wife – unconscious.
Until that video came out, Rice was set to return to the team on Friday after serving the weak, two-game suspension that he received from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Yet with the video confirming the worst-case scenario illustrating the ugly essence of domestic violence, the Ravens had no choice but to cut ties with Rice – glaring hole in the backfield be damned.
And just think: The Ravens stood behind Rice, who sat at a press conference a few months ago while his wife apologized for her "role" in the incident.
On the videotape, her role looked to be that as a classic victim.
Shame on the Ravens – including Bisciotti, team president Dick Cass, GM Ozzie Newsome, coach John Harbaugh and then some – for not executing due diligence.
The team, part of a league that generates more than $10 billion in revenues, should have secured the bottom-line evidence and then decided if that's the running back they want representing the franchise.
Especially after the first TMZ video, from outside the elevator, shocked us enough.
It's one thing to support a troubled player, as the Ravens have done throughout their history on many levels. But that shouldn't include guaranteeing a job for a player who knocks out his lady.
The Ravens needed to make that statement about the principles of their organization before now.
Shame too on the NFL, which followed the Ravens move by suspending Rice indefinitely.
It took intense backlash for Goodell to institute a tougher domestic violence policy and acknowledge that he blew it with the original suspension. Now this takes all the thunder from NFL, Week 1.
The prosecutor in Atlantic City blew it, too.
That act of violence got Rice into a diversion program that will ultimately erase the charges?
The TMZ video wasn't created Monday. The existence of such an inside-the-elevator view was known for months, talked about on the NFL grapevine. Knowing that it existed, it was incumbent upon the Ravens and the NFL to obtain and review that video before making any judgments about a suspension or levels of support.
The Ravens were rebuffed in attempts to secure a copy of the videotape, acting on the knowledge that the prosecutor and presiding Judge in Rice's case saw the video, a person with knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports. Anonymity was requested because the person was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
The NFL's explanation that it had not seen the video until Monday was not good enough.
If TMZ can get the videotape, why can't the NFL?
The NFL maintains that it requested the videotape from the authorities. That it was rebuffed, too, is puzzling when considering the high-profile nature of the case and the NFL's widespread ties.
The NFL and its teams don't have the type of subpoena power to obtain videotape from private establishments as law enforcement can obtain, but a veteran law enforcement professional on Monday maintained to me that the league security personnel typically have cooperative arrangements with law enforcement. That's why it's difficult to imagine that the Ravens and the NFL could not have obtained the videotape.
Yes, there much blame to spread.
The sequence of events leaves the impression that the Rices were not fully transparent in providing details of what occurred inside the elevator.
Even if that's the case, Goodell and the Ravens brass had to know of the tendency for domestic violence victims – and perpetrators, too – to soften their versions in the interest of economics.
While it's unclear exactly what the Rices told Goodell and the Ravens beyond Ray admitting that he struck Janay, we know that Janay publicly accepted blame while reading a statement at a bizarre press conference in May.
Even worse, the Ravens sent a tweet that afternoon expressing her remorse from the team's official Twitter account.
On top of that, team vice president Kevin Byrne wrote a glowing defense of Rice's character on the team website. Fans gave Rice a standing ovation during an open practice at M&T Bank Stadium.
And when Rice held a press conference days after his suspension was handed down in late July, virtually the entire Ravens team appeared as a show of support.
I wonder whether any of that support – from fans, team officials and teammates alike – would have existed in similar fashion if they had seen the videotape.
The first videotape, with Rice dropping Janay to the floor outside the elevator like a wet napkin, should have been enough to temper the support.
But now there's no gray area. Just a lot of people needing to cover their tracks.
