On Monday morning, video footage surfaced showing Ray Rice assaulting his then-fiancée, Janay Palmer, in an elevator during an incident back in February, and hours later, the Baltimore Ravens announced that Rice's contract has been terminated [1]. The running back was arrested in February for hitting Janay at a casino in Atlantic City, NJ, and at the time, he pleaded not guilty. Backlash came quickly when the NFL punished him with a fine and a two-game suspension, which many found to be too light.

Early Monday, the NFL senior vice president of communications [2] said the league hadn't seen the video until now: "That video was not made available to us, and no one in our office has seen it until today." The video's release prompted a quick, negative reaction across social media, with Seth Rogen slamming the NFL [3] and ESPN's Adam Schefter criticizing the league's reaction [4].