I wonder what the waiting period here is before the media “redemption” narrative begins building and other NFL teams start looking at him.

Over/under is six months.

The #Ravens have terminated RB Ray Rice's contract this afternoon.

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) September 8, 2014

I’m with Mark Hemingway: I don’t understand why the video needed to come out before they dumped him. It’s not a question of the surveillance footage showing that what he did was worse than thought. He was already charged with third-degree aggravated assault; video of him dragging her, unconscious, from the elevator has been out for months. Video of the punch itself hadn’t been seen publicly until today but people involved in the case had watched it and knew that it showed Rice knocking her out. Nothing happened today that the NFL and the Ravens didn’t already know, despite the league’s lies to the contrary. The only thing that changed is that the public, which more or less tolerates domestic abuse by celebrities in the abstract, got a concrete example of how brutal it can be.

I’m curious to know now how Goodell and the Ravens’ front office settled on the idea of cutting him rather than extending his suspension. I assume Goodell decided that it’d look simply too pathetic for the league to pretend like it was suddenly more outraged today than when it first saw the elevator video months ago and wrist-slapped him with a two-game suspension. So the Ravens were forced to pretend instead.

Update: Undoubtedly.

Think about it: Had TMZ not released the video, in three weeks there would've been 70K fans in Baltimore giving Ray Rice a standing ovation.

— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) September 8, 2014

Update: This is indeed the lesson the NFL means to impart, given its actions:

https://twitter.com/BecketAdams/status/509047282046869504

Update: Goodell decides to express his pretend-outrage too:

Roger Goodell has announced that based on new video evidence that became available today he has
indefinitely suspended Ray Rice.

— Greg Aiello (@gregaiello) September 8, 2014