My take on the Ray Rice thing.

I am going to weigh in on the Ray Rice thing. I have kept quiet for the most part so far.
Would I personally ever hit a woman? No, I was raised not to do that. Defend myself, yes. If she was dangerous enough that I had to hit her to save myself from harm, yes, I would have to. But, in all other cases, I would restrain her but not hit her. I am a lot stronger than most females. I wouldn't have to knock her out like Ray Rice did. He could have done that. He didn't. He gets the punishment now for choosing A, and not B. Obviously, no woman has a knockout punch like that coming, but certainly she wasn't some innocent victim who didn't provoke him. Again, however, that doesn't give Ray Rice a pass, in any way.
Now, my premise is that if we want to stop this sort of thing (as much as we can, because no matter what, some men will always hit women, no matter what we do), I feel we need to ask where the fathers of these women are. Or, the brothers.
Quite frankly, if I had a daughter, it would be very clear to whomever she chooses that if they hit her, ever, they will have to deal with me, and they wont want to go there. I can be very nasty and violent when I need to be, which is rarely, but still, you don't want to mess with me. That would be clearly understood.
I don't have a daughter. But I do have a sister. And the same goes there. My brother in law would never dream of hitting my sister. But..if he did, he knows that he would have to deal with me.
The only thing that works with the Ray Rice types, the type that can't just restrain the woman and hits and injures women, is the fear that someone bigger and stronger than them will do something about it.
If you watch The Godfather, there is a scene in it to the effect of what I am saying here.
We need to teach girls to think that the good men in their life can protect them from the abuse, and the men that they choose should understand that they aren't picking a fight with a girl they can beat, they are picking a fight with a team that can fight back.
That is mainly why the players in the NFL don't want Ray Rice back. He would be a lousy teammate. A guy who would beat the woman he loves, unconscious, and drag her from the elevator like some Moose or Deer he just killed in the woods, is not someone I would have confidence to have my back on any team.