The frenzy surrounding footage of NFL player Ray Rice knocking his wife unconscious in a lift just got weird: a significant amount of women showed up to the Steelers versus Ravens match yesterday wearing Ray Rice jerseys in support of the ex-Ravens player.
The decision to suspend him from the NFL was a unanimous one. While Rice was charged earlier this year, the video depicting the sports star punching his wife in the face changed people’s attitudes somewhat. Apart from these superfans, of course.
‘I’m making a statement,’ one female fan told Fox Sports. ‘I don’t believe in domestic violence, but I will say: any woman who can hit a man, a man shouldn’t have to sit there and take the abuse. The abuse goes both ways. As a woman, she shouldn’t have hit him. If I hit you, I would expect you to hit me back. And that’s just how that goes.’
READ MORE: Now Rihanna’s Been Dragged Into This Whole NFL Domestic Violence Mess
Others just feel like he’s a good guy who made one, fairly violent, mistake: ‘I’m wearing this because I’m trying to support him,’ said a female season ticket holder. ‘I think what he did was really bad, really bad. ... it just seems that from everything I’ve seen up to this point, he seems to be a genuinely decent human being that screwed up big time. Who hasn’t screwed up?’
There also seemed to be a lot of questions as to why his professional life should be punished on account of his private life. One fan mused that there are footballers who are playing that have done way worse things than clocking your girlfriend in a lift. ‘There’s players that have done worse than Rice did and they’re still playing. I feel like what he was kicked out for wasn’t right,’ a male fan added.
‘Well, he’s an upstanding citizen here in Baltimore, he’s done a lot for the community and the reality is, he made a mistake. He admitted it – both him and his wife – and they were punished for it,’ another fan said.
Nothing about the fact that he’s twice her size and probably shouldn’t have knocked her out, and that this punishment is one of the only things that’ll get through to him. A fine isn’t exactly going to do it, is it?
Either way, it’s doubtful Ray will be playing for the NFL anytime soon, regardless of how many jerseys people wear. And we’re totally OK with that.
You might also find this interesting...
Woman Knocked Unconscious By Ray Rice Says Their Lives Are Ruined After The Video Leaked
Whoopi Goldberg Totally Loses Our Respect After Blaming Victim For Football Player’s Assault
Picture: PA
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.