11-28-2014, 04:43 PM
It will be really interesting to see if anyone signs Rice, Duchess.
I've been especially interested in the legal and contractual aspects of the story.
JUDGE'S RATIONALE FOR RICE'S APPEAL VICTORY:
U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones, who heard Rice's appeal earlier this month, concluded in her decision, which was obtained by ESPN investigative reporter Don Van Natta Jr., that Rice did not lie or mislead the NFL.
"In so holding, I find that the NFLPA carried its burden of showing that Rice did not mislead the Commissioner at the June 16th meeting, and therefore, that the imposition of a second suspension based on the same incident and the same known facts about the incident, was arbitrary," Jones' decision stated.
"[T]he Commissioner needed to be fair and consistent in his imposition of discipline. ... Moreover, any failure on the part of the League to understand the level of violence was not due to Rice's description of the event but to the inadequacy of words to convey the seriousness of domestic violence. That the League did not realize the severity of the conduct without a visual record also speaks to their admitted failure in the past to sanction this type of conduct more severely."
Source: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/119498...nstatement
I've been especially interested in the legal and contractual aspects of the story.
JUDGE'S RATIONALE FOR RICE'S APPEAL VICTORY:
U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones, who heard Rice's appeal earlier this month, concluded in her decision, which was obtained by ESPN investigative reporter Don Van Natta Jr., that Rice did not lie or mislead the NFL.
"In so holding, I find that the NFLPA carried its burden of showing that Rice did not mislead the Commissioner at the June 16th meeting, and therefore, that the imposition of a second suspension based on the same incident and the same known facts about the incident, was arbitrary," Jones' decision stated.
"[T]he Commissioner needed to be fair and consistent in his imposition of discipline. ... Moreover, any failure on the part of the League to understand the level of violence was not due to Rice's description of the event but to the inadequacy of words to convey the seriousness of domestic violence. That the League did not realize the severity of the conduct without a visual record also speaks to their admitted failure in the past to sanction this type of conduct more severely."
Source: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/119498...nstatement