Apparently, Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh isn't a bad guy. He just plays one on TV.
One of the most intriguing aspects of ESPN Outside the Lines' timeline of the Ray Rice domestic violence episode that the Ravens handling of the matter that Harbaugh urged the Ravens management to release the Ravens running back when Harbaugh saw the first TMZ video or Rice dragging then-fiancée Janay Palmer out of an Atlantic City casino.
Despite its inept response in incidents of domestic violence, the NFL is not in trouble
"Although the grainy video did not show what had happened behind the elevator's doors, the images horrified Ravens coach John Harbaugh, according to four sources inside and outside the organization," Outside the Lines reported.
But Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, team president Dick Cass and general manager Ozzie Newsome overruled him.
After two other Ravens - offensive lineman Jah Reid and wide receiver Deonte Thompson - were arrested in March, Harbaugh went back to Newsome and asked that the trio be cut.
"Newsome, according to what Rice was told, bristled at the recommendation, saying he was the decision-maker in the matter, not Harbaugh, and he believed in second chances. Newsome believed if the team had weathered the controversy in 2000 when All-Pro linebacker Ray Lewis was charged in a double homicide after a Super Bowl party in Atlanta, and had endured the criticism after running back Jamal Lewis' guilty plea to cocaine trafficking in 2004, it could certainly weather the controversy surrounding this trio of arrests, too."
The Ravens said that ESPN reported false or misleading information.
If the report is accurate, then Harbaugh will be one of the few people to come out of the situation unscathed. The same may not be said about his superiors, but we've seen Adrian Peterson's mother come out in support of her son. It's not unreasonable to think that Rice's relationship with team owners - as ESPN portrayed it to be - clouded their judgment in allegedly working to reduce Rice's punishment.
We've seen Adrian Peterson's mother come out in support of her son, even though he was clearly wrong. Relationships can blind one of the parties to another's actions.
Which leaves us back on the NFL doorstep. If commissioner Roger Goodell's claims that the league never saw the second video before Sept. 8 are true, then he and the league simply dropped the ball on trying to acquire the video.
But several assume that the NFL did see the video. And it's the NFL that has to step in on matters such as domestic violence because teams have that blind loyalty to their players.
The NFL can't sit on its thumbs.
Ironically, had the NFL not sat on its thumbs and suspended Rice indefinitely in the first place, he alone would've been a pariah for the league. He would've had to have to have sat out this season, but could've come back like Michael Vick did following his dog-fighting incident.
Had the NFL showed Rice tough love in the first place, the Ravens wouldn't have gotten caught trying to protect one of their own.
Or, if the Ravens had just listened to Harbaugh, they could've avoided a lot of embarrassment. And though Rice suffered humiliation anyway, he would not have become the poster child for domestic abuse in the NFL.
But if Harbaugh was towing the company line all during the spring about supporting Rice, he must beside himself about what has transpired to Rice, to the Ravens and to the league.
Do you believe that Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh wanted running back Ray Rice gone after he saw the first video or Rice and his girlfriend? Comment below or tell us @SportsWN.
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