Ozzie Newsome calls Ray Rice suspension ‘fair’

Newsome explained that the organization respected the league’s ruling and commended the NFL for a thorough process to evaluate the incident, via the Ravens website:

“While not having Ray for the first two games is significant to our team, we respect the league’s decision and believe it is fair,” Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome said in a statement.

“We appreciate the thorough process the league office used to evaluate the incident with Ray Rice. The time the Commissioner spent with Ray and Janay is typical of the extra steps the NFL takes when making decisions regarding discipline issues.”

Rice was arrested after a domestic incident occurred with his then-fiancée Janay Parker (the two have since married). Surveillance video depicted Rice assaulting Parker in an Atlantic City hotel elevator, which resulted in his being charged with aggravated assault. Rice was facing potential jail time but was able to apply, and ultimately accepted, into a pretrial intervention program that allowed him to have his charges dropped if he stayed out of trouble and underwent counseling.

That counseling was cited by commissioner Roger Goodell in the league’s official statement on the matter and was listed as a reason why Rice received a two-game suspension.

Rice will formally begin his suspension on Aug. 30 and will be eligible to return to the team on Sept. 12. He will be permitted to participate in all of training camp and can play in each of the team’s exhibition games.