Ray Rice cut by Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens announced on Monday afternoon that they have released Ray Rice.

The move hardly came as a shock after a video was released on Monday morning showing Rice hitting his now-wife Janay Palmer in the face and knocking her unconscious. The Ravens and the NFL both claimed to have not seen the video prior to TMZ releasing it. The NFL said they requested that authorities allow them to view the footage but that their request was never fulfilled.

It’s impossible to know who knew what and when they knew it. The Ravens basically had no choice but to release Rice. If they saw the video before and assumed it would never go public, well, that’s just stupid. If they didn’t see the video and they really believed that Rice had to defend himself against a small woman in a way that resulted in him dragging her unconscious body out of an elevator, that might be even stupider.

Rice’s release leaves Justin Forsett, Lorenzo Taliaferro and Bernard Pierce to handle Baltimore’s backfield.