Video not required

Deadspin reports on the arbitrator's decision overturning the NFL's indefinite suspension of former Ravens running back Ray Rice. The arbitrator determined that Rice did not misrepresent to the league what happened in the elevator, contrary to the league's stated basis for imposing a new punishment after the release of the video. Importantly, she pointedly rejected the idea that video was necessary to  understand what happened or that video should have changed anything about the appropriate punishment, that it was not : "That the League did not realize the severity of the conduct without a visual record also speaks to their admitted failure in the past to sanction this type of conduct more severely."