Ray Rice, Day Four

• Enter Paul George of the Indiana Pacers on the enabler side.  

Paul George (with apologies to Paul Pierce if he ever saw that) basically shows what most NFL male fans are thinking tonight -- and I've heard more than a few of them in social media:

According to Yahoo!, he ranted the following:

"I don't condone hittin[g] women or think it's coo[l], BUT if she ain't trippin then I ain't trippin...  Let's keep it movin lol let that man play"

Adam Silver, you got a live one here.  This is "duty of loyalty" materal.

And if that isn't enough:

"If you in a relationship and a woman hit you first and attacking YOU...  Then you obviously ain't beating HER...  Homie made a bad choice."

No, homie...  YOU made a bad choice, and, with Adam Silver running the NBA, you might well have a lot longer to heal that bum knee of yours.

• Tonight appears like it's going to get quite ugly in Baltimore.

As expected, it appears as if the apologists for domestic violence will be out in full force.

Deadspin has this compilation of football apologists, and, as I expected, Ray Rice jerseys will be out in full force tonight.  (Even though the Ravens will apparently, free of charge, exchange any other Raven's jersey for anyone wishing to rid themselves of Rice's.)

A fan talking to Mike Garafalo of Fox Sports 1:  "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."

Where's that "loudest manure chant" from the replacement refs game?

• According to an unnamed NFL owner familiar with the discussion, it is now official:  Roger Goodell believed Janay Rice was (at least partially) at fault for her own assault. (Deadspin, through the Wall Street Journal)  Moreover, the only reason he suspended Rice at all appears to be that actually making that stand public would've been a bad PR move.

I guess this would now mean that Ted Thompson's suspension (which has been extended to the Pac-12 Network) is actually against NFL policy, right?

• And, yet, this ESPN interview with Bill Polian went all wrong.

So he says one thing, the interview gets cut off, he comes back on, and (is told to) say(s) something else...  Yeah, right...