Maine Gov. Paul LePage is not thrilled with the way the NFL has handled the suspension of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, and said today on a radio show that he intends on boycotting the NFL and will be sending NFL Commissioner Roger Gooddell a letter criticizing the relatively light punishment Rice received for beating his fiancé unconscious.
“They care so little about our women and our children that they’re going to hire these barbarians who go and hit their wives and their kids and they’re gonna get a slap on the hand? And some guy got a year for smoking pot? You know what I think he (Ray Rice) should have got? A three year suspension. The team should have taken him out behind the back shed and taken care of him. I’m so incensed about it it’s unbelievable. I’m so mad that we would allow that and he would get a slap on the hand like that.,” LePage said.
LePage, who ran away from home at age 11 following abuse from his father, has made domestic violence awareness and prevention a priority during his administration.
Video footage showing Rice dragging his unconscious then-fiancé (now wife) out of an elevator went viral in February. The NFL announced their punishment in late July, to significant controversy.
Two games is a slap on the wrist, and LePage is right to take a stand.