Goodell monitoring Ray Rice situation

By now everyone knows what happened with Ray Rice and his fiancee, Janay Palmer, in an Atlantic City casino this February. Video has been played over and over and the situation doesn't look good from the outside. The Atlantic County Prosecutor's office confirmed that they are still reviewing the case as no court date has been assigned at this time.

A one to three game suspension and fine is a possible outcome just as well as no punishment by the league and anything in between. With the new NFL and Goodell's stance on personal conduct, some type of punishment is expected even though it is Rice's first issue since being drafted in the second round of the 2008 draft.

When asked by reporters during the NFL owners meetings if the case is being watched and if Rice will be disciplined, Goodell said:

Yes, and I don’t know on the second part. We’ll let the facts dictate that.

In the recent past, the NFL has suspended players under the personal conduct policy even if they were not charged or convicted of a crime. That includes the 2010 suspension of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for 6 games without pay for his alleged sexual assault in Georgia. The suspension was later reduced to only 4 games due to good behavior, but still shows that the NFL has no problems will laying down the hammer if it feels like it should.

At the NFL owners meetings, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti gave Ray Rice his full support and mentioned that Rice has a place on the team this year. While that is a little bit of posturing due to the dead money left on Rice's contract, it can be a confidence booster to a player that had a disappointing season last year with injuries and stats.

With the legal trouble he is in, hopefully Rice puts his nose to the grindstone and can regain some of what made him a  ProBowl player. That is if he doesn't get suspended first.