As first reported by Yahoo's Rand Getlin, and just now by multiple other reporters, Ravens RB Ray Rice will be suspended by the NFL for the first two games of the season for beating the shit out of his then-fiancée.
Here's video of the aftermath, of Rice dragging an unconscious Janay Palmer out of a casino elevator.
Rice entered a diversionary program, which should include community service and will allow him to come out of this with a clean record.
There is surveillance video, reportedly in the police's possession, that shows the blow that knocked Palmer out. One day that video will be leaked, and we'll all see Ray Rice deck a woman, and we'll remember that the NFL suspended him for two games.
Here's the police summons, in case you needed a refresher:
A person who was at Revel during the incident had heard the punch was an "uppercut." (This is hearsay, but we're noting it here to explain why we changed the headline.) A Revel employee, who saw the end of the altercation, claimed he'd been told by security that Rice had hit Palmer "like he punched a guy," and that surveillance video showed it was far from "a minor incident," as Rice's attorney had initially characterized it.
Palmer, who married Rice after the incident, went on to apologize for her role in getting punched out.
Josh Gordon smoked weed and is currently facing a 16-game suspension.
Update: Adam Schefter, on ESPN, is saying that much of the leniency serves from Rice's meeting with Roger Goodell, in which Rice reportedly "showed him more videotape than... everybody has seen." I am forced to wonder what mitigating circumstances could possibly be found in a video that indisputably ends with Rice knocking out his fiancée.
But, you know, it's Schefter: