MR. KOJO NNAMDIFrom WAMU 88.5 at American University in Washington, welcome to "The Kojo Nnamdi Show," connecting your neighborhood with the world. Later in the broadcast, we'll hear from Howard Fuller on his career from Black Power leader to school choice leader. But first, a video released yesterday by entertainment new site, TMZ transformed the domestic violence case of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice. The video shows Rice punching his fiancé in the face, knocking her unconscious inside an elevator, then dragging her body away from the scene. Both his team and the league responded quickly amid public outrage.

MR. KOJO NNAMDIThe Ravens ended Rice's contract and the NFL suspended him indefinitely. And although this video is new to the public, there has been footage from outside of the elevator, which showed Rice dragging his unconscious fiancé since February. He was indicted on domestic violence charges in march and suspended by the league for two games, raising questions about how the league and law enforcement handled the case and where it will go from here. Joining me to discuss this is Christine Brennan. She's a sports columnist with USA Today. She joins us by phone. Christine, how is it going?

MS. CHRISTINE BRENNANHey, Kojo. It's going great, thank you. How are you doing?

NNAMDIPretty good. Good to talk to you, but not about this incident, which happened in February of this year at an Atlantic City casino. For seven months there's been video showing Ray Rice dragging his fiancé out while she was unconscious. He was indicted on aggravated assault charges in March, suspended for two games. And until yesterday, he was scheduled to play next week against the Browns. What did this new video change about the situation?

BRENNANIt's a great question because in many ways it should have changed nothing, right? I mean we saw the earlier video of Ray Rice dragging the listless body of his then fiancé, Janay Palmer, now Janay Palmer Rice, you know, out of that elevator months ago. And what did we think happened in that elevator? What do we think domestic violence looks like? Apparently, many people, including the NFL leadership and commissioner Roger Goodell didn't think it looked like what they saw when they finally saw the video provided by TMZ or obtained by TMZ yesterday.

BRENNANAnd then, of course, a chain reaction the likes of which we really rarely see in sports, Kojo, where popular opinion, social media and mainstream sports media and news media literally changed something within a couple of hours. As you said, Ray Rice was ready to be back starting Friday, after the Ravens game Thursday night -- his two-game suspension would have been over -- to be back in the good graces, practicing, the fans are cheering for him every time they see him in summer practice, on the video board. And now he's gone, boom, like that. So in many ways it begs, well, it begs so many questions about what people thought domestic violence looked like.

BRENNANIt's a good result. But how we got to this result is troubling and alarming and begs as many questions as I think it answers.

NNAMDI800-433-8850, if you have questions or comments for Christine Brennan. What do you think about the NFL reaction to the Ray Rice video? Is being released and suspended indefinitely the appropriate punishment? 800-433-8850. You can send email to kojo@wamu.org. What do you think about law enforcement's handling of the Ray Rice case? You can shoot us a tweet @kojoshow or go to our website, kojoshow.org, join the conversation there. Christine, this incident speaks to the power of video. There are a number of other NFL players who have been involved in domestic violence incidents.

NNAMDISome, like Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy, have even been found guilty and they continue to be on NFL rosters. How does the Ray Rice incident change how these players are treated?

BRENNANI think, Kojo, that it should change their status traumatically and immediately. I mean, basically, they are Ray Rices out on the field. But they are, I guess you would call them, very cynically, lucky abusers or alleged abusers in the case of a couple of them, in that they were not doing their alleged or real abusing in front of a video camera. And I'm saying that cynically and I mean it -- I mean to say it cynically. So, as you mentioned, you've got Greg Hardy from the Carolina Panthers has actually been found guilty of domestic violence and he played the other day. And he'll be playing this week. How is that possible? He should be gone.

BRENNANIf Ray Rice now -- if the new rules are, it's not two games, it's not six games, you're gone immediately, as we have now seen today. That seems to me there's a new standard as of yesterday. If that is in fact the case, then how is this man playing for the Carolina Panthers? Ray McDonald with the San Francisco 49ers -- no, nothing proved yet. But allegations of domestic abuse by him, and he played for the San Francisco 49ers, the coach of whom is of course the coach of -- the brother of the Ravens' coach. So you've got that going on -- others as well. And the league is basically full of Ray Rices.

NNAMDIWell, which...

BRENNANAnd how is it possible they can continue to play?

NNAMDIWhich poses an ethical dilemma for the league. After issuing Rice's two-game suspension, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged he got it wrong, announced stricter punishment for domestic violence -- a six-game suspension for the first offense and possible lifetime ban for the second. Many people have lauded that change as a step forward. Some of them might be saying, well, why shouldn't the six-game ban apply to Ray Rice as a first-time offender?

BRENNANWell, actually I -- that's a great question, Kojo. Because I thought that yesterday. When it first started to hit, I actually wrote a quick early column. We were looking at the punishment. I said -- and I thought I was taking a bit of a stand to be honest with you. Obviously, I -- you know, where I come down on this issue, of course, it's no secret -- but based on the reaction of all of us, that the six games was good. And then, by the way, the other piece of that a week and a half ago was six games for the first offense and then a potential lifetime ban for the second -- certainly a year and then you'd be reevaluated. So it was -- a lifetime ban was likely the second go-round. Again, that seems like a million years ago now, doesn't it?

NNAMDIYep.

BRENNANBut based on that, I thought well, saying that Ray Rice should at least get six games or a year. Based on the video yesterday, I said, you could say this is kind of a new offense and go for it that way. And obviously within a couple hours, we went from zero to...

NNAMDILifetime.

BRENNAN...lifetime. I mean, but in terms of like driving a car, boom. I mean, and that's great. As I said, that is a positive development. But there are so many questions within this. And that's why I said, if we -- if that is now the new standard, then why are these other guys still playing?

NNAMDICorrect.

BRENNANOr at least bench them. If you don't want to suspend them while the legal process runs its course, then bench them. Have the teams individually, you know, tell them they're going to sit out until it's resolved.

NNAMDIIn case you're just joining us, our guest is Christine Brennan, sports columnist with USA Today. The football officials involved in this case, Christine -- NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Baltimore Ravens' Team President Dick Cass, and others in the league, said they had not seen the video of Rice punching his fiancé until yesterday. How credible is that?

BRENNANI'm going to have to take them at their word, Kojo, just because, as you and I have been around the business for a while, I don't know. So what I do know is what they've said. And I think I will take -- I know I'll take them at their word and quote them accurately or quote them saying that and hope it's accurate. And then let's see how things play out. As we know from so many of these stories, whether it's Lance Armstrong or Michael Vick or the performance-enhancing drug issue that has, you know, basically taken over baseball and the Olympics over the year, there's so much we don't know. And I am open to finding it out, as I think all journalists are.

BRENNANSo, that said, TMZ of course has been the one that's been leaking this and putting some of these things out, including the video, themselves, that they obtained. And of course now, today, they're saying that the league did not ask for it and didn't see it. So that leads a whole -- many more questions, it seems to me. If you're trying to investigate this and you're the NFL -- and the NFL is our national pastime, the biggest professional league, the most popular by far in our country now and understandably rightly so for many millions of football fans -- how can you not put all the power of your office and your league behind this and say, okay, we really want to find out what's going on.

NNAMDIBut apparently they didn't have to put a great deal of power behind it, because according, anyway, to TMZ's published story today, the hotel would have gladly given the NFL the video if they asked for it, which seems to imply that they didn't.

BRENNANIt does. And then when you see if you're at all with it and thinking clearly, when you see the video of him dragging her out of the elevator, which is horrible, just horrible. I mean, she's -- it's a listless, you know, her body is not moving. She is clearly unconscious and unable to move, and that's Janay Palmer, now Janay Rice. Then at that point, don't you say, if you're the National Football League, Kojo, to your great questions here -- at that point, don't you say, okay, clearly there's a video of him pulling her out of there. We all know that there are a lot of cameras around society now and in buildings and on the sidewalks.

NNAMDIAnd this was a casino hotel, yes.

BRENNANIs it possible -- likely, but you could at least ask the hotel and the casino -- do you have a camera inside the elevator? How you don't ask those questions, I don't know. Does this reach the point of a fireable offense for Roger Goodell? I don't know. You know, he serves at the request and at the behest of the owners. And my sense would be they do not want to get rid of him. But this is a fast-moving story. And I'm not saying he's going to be gone. But he should answer these questions.

BRENNANBecause Roger Goodell is a smart man. I've known him for 30 years. Why didn't you think to ask for the video that might be inside the elevator, turns out it is inside the elevator? How is it that it's TMZ that is getting this before the authorities who should have been looking at it?

NNAMDIThere are also questions about how law enforcement should have treated this. But allow me to go to the phones and have Derek in Columbia, Md., raise that issue. Derek, you are on the air. Go ahead, please.

DEREKThank you, Kojo, for taking my call. Yeah, just two quick points. I don't think that he should have been suspended -- well, he has been suspended indefinitely, so he may have a chance to come back. But I do believe that there should be a finite punishment, whether for a year, and that he can have a chance to come back. I think the NFL is a microcosm of society. So just like if you're a truck driver and you commit some act, that doesn't mean you should never, ever work as a truck driver again. And I think the focus has a lot been on what the NFL did in terms of getting the video -- I'm more concerned about what you just said in terms of the prosecution, because they have the force of law behind them.

DEREKThey have a right to get that evidence. If they -- it wasn't turned over to them, that could be obstruction of justice. I don't know why they didn't do more. And if they did do it, how is it that that could be a third-degree assault charge? That is where the focus should be first. Because I think if they had come down a lot harder, there's no way the NFL would have been able to do a two-game suspension, if he was going to be, you know, put away for some jail time or something like that. So that's where it all started. And that's, I think -- those are the folks I think are most culpable here, is the prosecution and law enforcement and not taking a harder stance on an act like that.

NNAMDIChristine, as you just heard, people like Derek have been critical of law enforcement's handling of this case. The Atlantic City Prosecutor's Office offered Ray Rice pretrial intervention, which allows him to avoid jail time and have the charges expunged from his record if he completes a year of counseling. Yet, the prosecutor either did see or had access to this video. Do you think this pretrial intervention is appropriate?

BRENNANNo, I don't. And Derek's points are great. And thank you, Derek, for bringing them up. Yes, we all have to be asking and scratching our head, what was the prosecutor thinking in Atlantic City? It's just a horrible lack of understanding in and doing his or her job. I -- it's just stunning. So I have not followed that that closely obviously other than what we know from just the basic reports. So that's just unbelievable. And it's true, Derek, that if in fact there had been a tough sentence -- obviously the leagues or any league, any sports entity is going to try to take its cue from law enforcement. That makes perfect sense.

BRENNANSo is this a larger cultural issue? I think the answer will be yes, that we have not been taking domestic violence seriously anywhere in our society. I think the answer is yes. And maybe this is a watershed moment that we are now finally waking up to what this really is. I think that's it.

BRENNANAnd to Derek's first point about anyone gets a second chance, I do think that Ray Rice, in a year or two, might. I mean, there are many people who have. And let's hope for the positive outcome here. I don't want to sound too Pollyannaish, but, you know, let's hope that Ray Rice and his wife, who is supporting him and issued a strong support today on social media.

BRENNANThat Janay Palmer-Rice -- let's hope that they can become spokespeople and do some of the things to help people avoid these horrible, terrible things. That Janay could talk to women, that Ray Rice could talk to men. Let's hope that they can get to that point to become leaders in trying to prevent this. That would be a wonderful outcome of something that's so terrible.

BRENNANBut I will say this, professional football players and professional athletes are different. They're not like someone who's selling insurance. They choose these careers. They stepped off the sidewalk, they joined the parade. They know they're role models. They're held to a higher standard. It is a privilege to be doing this for a living. It is not a right. And I'm sorry, but Ray Rice is just held to far higher standards to me because he impacts the lives of children and so many others.

NNAMDICan't compare him to a truck driver. Here is Mark in Falls Church, Va. Mark, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

MARKHi, hi. I'm just calling, I want to make two quick points basically. I'm wondering what is the precedent that's being set by the NFL? Do you know is it -- you know, this whole reactionary response to the video. It's not like, you know, they didn't know what domestic violence looks like. So are they really just saying, you know, the punishment's going to come down if you not only get caught, but, you know, get caught in such gruesome fashion where the video is available for everyone.

MARKAnd secondly, what are the ethical implications of, you know, playing this video over and over again? It's like, we do know what this looks like already. You know, this poor woman, she is being re-victimized over and over again, so just wondering about that.

BRENNANOkay, Mark. Great questions. As far as playing it over and over again, the second question, you know, I think that's just our world, I hate to say it. You know, that is just simply where we are with social media. Obviously you don't have to look. I know a lot of networks have shown only a part of it and kind of stopped, you know, before the actual punch. I personally think we should see the whole thing and I know that many of us have. But you can choose not to and we're here.

BRENNANYou know, this is our era, so I'm a realist. And while we might wish it weren't so, we might wish that words and details would matter, they do. But in this case, seeing it and hearing it -- the Donald Sterling thing, we heard it. The audio tape meant everything in that story. And a bad man was finally eliminated from the MBA. Much longer -- it took much longer time than it should have. Same thing here. The video obviously, and the tape, helped tremendously. And I'm sorry I actually forgot the first part of the question.

NNAMDIMark, what was the first part of your question?

BRENNANI'm sorry.

MARKOh, what kind of precedent is the NFL setting here by, you know, responding to a video rather than the actual facts of the case.

BRENNANRight. That's what I meant.

MARKThey're only punishing more because of this video. Because imagine if this video never came out, it'd still be a two-game suspension.

BRENNANRight. No, Mark, I'm sorry about that. Yeah, definitely. That's the question I'm asking today. I have no idea what the new rules are, as I said a little bit ago. And I'm not trying to be, you know, facetious here at all. It was two games, now it's six games and now apparently it is, you're kicked out by your team and then you, you know, have an indefinite suspension from the league. That is what Ray Rice has now as of about 24 hours ago. What is it? I don't know.

BRENNANIf the precedent is, you are kicked out immediately, your team should get rid of you, then I would say why are the Panthers still playing Greg Hardy? Why is Ray McDonald still playing? Why Terrell Suggs? If folks want to look at my column online on Twitter, Facebook, you can find it almost anywhere, the Terrell Suggs story is horrible.

NNAMDIYep.

BRENNANAbsolutely horrible, and he will be suiting up as a linebacker for the Ravens Thursday night. It sounds worse, frankly, then what happened in the elevator, if that's possible. And what he did and his wife, her sworn statements over and over again, throwing bleach on her, dragging her from a moving car with the children inside. You can find it anywhere, Terrell Suggs. And people will be cheering for him as he suits up Thursday night for the Ravens.

NNAMDIWe'll have to figure out exactly what the NFL standards is going to be, and if it's going to be consistent. This is a story that is still unfolding. Christine Brennan, thank you so much for joining us to talk about it.

BRENNANKojo, my pleasure. Next time let's talk about something much better and happier.

NNAMDIIndeed, we'll try to.

BRENNANThank you.

NNAMDIChristine Brennan is a sports columnist for USA Today. We're taking a short break. When we come back, we'll be talking with Howard Fuller about his career from black power leader to school choice leader. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.