After all the outrage following the release of the video of Ray Rice striking his then-fiancee in an Atlantic City elevator, the former Baltimore Ravens running back could be reinstated to the NFL in the next month.
This, according to CBS Sports sources, would unfold only if an appeal hearing to his indefinite suspension is heard soon and he wins the case to have his penalty overturned. Conceivably, Rice could win the case and be eligible to be signed by another team by the middle of November.
Former U.S. District Court Judge Barbara S. Jones is handling the appeal as a neutral, third-party arbitrator, and all sides in the case have agreed to a date to conduct the hearing in the near future. That date could change somewhat based on what Jones rules this week on some requests the NFL players union made to have certain materials available to them in discovery, but sources said Rice’s legal team has made it explicitly clear it has no desire to wait until the NFL and the union’s investigations are concluded to resolve the matter of this suspension appeal.
Reinstatement does not mean a continuation of his career, however. A team would have to battle the vast public outcry that is bound to come with adding Rice to a roster.
All this could come before the NFL’s investigation led by former FBI chief Robert Mueller completes and announces his findings.
