Dallas Cowboys Should Ignore RB Ray Rice

With training camp still a couple of months away, the Dallas Cowboys have been rumored to have interest in former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice.

That interest should be extremely low.

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When I say low, I mean that if current Dallas runners Darren McFadden, Ryan Williams, Joseph Randle and Lance Dunbar all end up unavailable for various reasons, then perhaps a phone call could – not should – but could be made to Rice’s representatives.

Otherwise, there really should be no story here.

Now, I’m not a legal expert and I don’t care to become one, but you’re perfectly within bounds to ask me, or simply think to yourself, “Why is Greg Hardy okay in Dallas but not Rice?”

I’ll try to explain my thoughts on this as simply as possible.

In Hardy’s case, there’s a degree of uncertainty, at least as I understand it, as to exactly what happened. This is a classic case of “he said, she said” that also includes a rather suspicious ending. In this situation, the accuser didn’t think enough of the event to complete the entire process, mainly due to a significant payout by Hardy’s camp, and seemed to ride off into the sunset with a purse full of cash.

This case featured zero concrete evidence of any crime, even though it definitely does reveal obvious dysfunction and immaturity. My apologies in advance if Hardy is guilty of all of the accusations made initially, but until all of those are proven in black and white, I can’t say what he did or didn’t do – and neither could the legal system, which is why the case was ultimately dismissed.

In Rice’s case, things are far, far different. Technology, in this particular event, offers all the evidence needed to probably place some people behind bars for aggravated assault or even attempted murder, depending on the attorney’s involved.

Rice went “Mike Tyson,” both in the ring and out, on his then-fiancee last year in a hotel elevator at an Atlantic City casino. I’ve watched this video just once and don’t need to see it again.

What Rice is caught doing, and I stress the word caught, is throwing a vicious, premeditated punch at the head of his current wife Janay Palmer, knocking her completely unconscious. Rice never seemed to show a great deal of concern over Palmer, looking down at her much like some other person he didn’t know that just happened to be lying motionless on the elevator floor.

Here we have irrefutable evidence that Rice hits women, period.

Somehow, Hardy is currently suspended for 10 games this coming season while Rice is free to play, having had his suspension wiped out last November.

Keep in mind that the Hardy and Rice incidents are separated by some three months, Hardy’s being the latter of the two in May of 2014

I’m not going to try to understand exactly why one guy, who was caught red-handed, is already free to suit up while the other has to sit around and wait, but the whole thing is a total mess that the Cowboys are already in to their knees. America’s Team, despite all of it’s historic second-chance players, don’t need a guy like Rice.

Yes, signing Hardy comes with all kinds of risk.

Acquiring Rice, however, means a public relations nightmare that even owner and general manager Jerry Jones isn’t prepared to handle.

Last month, Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Randy Galloway, a long-time area sportswriter, stated quite sarcastically that Dallas should go ahead and sign Rice.

He fills a need right?

Unless you feel that placing the best looking, most iconic helmet in American football on a visually confirmed wife-beater, then no, Rice fills no need whatsoever at Valley Ranch, period.

According to ESPN’s John Clayton, the Cowboys are one of five teams interested in signing the troubled running back out of Rutgers – Dallas is actually ranked at the top of that particular list.

But as the old saying goes, and it’s hard to beat a classic, “Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.”

Jones should really think about this idea.

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