Ray Rice wins appeal, NFL Suspension lifted.

Ray Rice has been suspended by the NFL since September 8^th after a video of Rice striking his then fiancée in an elevator in Atlantic City surfaced. Prior to the release of the video tape Rice had already been suspended for two games. Rice knocked Janay Palmer unconscious with a single punch, the NFL responded by suspending Rice indefinitely. The NFL maintains that they had no knowledge of the incriminating videotape when commissioner Roger Goodell gave Rice the two game suspension. Rice on the other hand, says that the NFL had all of the facts of the case at the time the suspension was given. Rice then appealed the NFL’s decision at a hearing in early November. At the hearing Ravens manager Ozzie Newsome indicated that in conversations he had with Goodell, Rice had already confessed to hitting Palmer. Goodell maintained that Rice had lied in his account of the events. The arbitrator and Former U.S Disctrict court judge Barbara S. Jones wrote in her decision “‘Because Rice did not mislead the commissioner and because there were no new facts on which the commissioner could base his increased suspension, I find that the imposition of the indefinite suspension was arbitrary. I therefore vacate the second penalty imposed on Rice.” Rice was released from the Baltimore Ravens in September and is now a free agent and is eligible to be signed to any team, however there is a question on whether he will be able to overcome the protest against him that will come from this situation.