Rutgers head coach Kyle Flood would much rather focus all of his energy on the first Big Ten game in program history this week. In light of a video of former Scarlet Knights running back Ray Rice being shown striking his wife in an elevator in an Atlantic City casino, Flood felt it was his responsibility to at least make a quick statement to the media before taking questions about his next game.
“Ray (Rice) will always be a part of our family,” Flood opened a Monday media session with. “The video I saw this morning was difficult to watch. As a husband and as a father, there’s nothing that could justify what I saw on that video. This is a sad day for Ray and a sad day for Rutgers.”
Rice was suspended by the NFL for two games to start the 2014 season (which started yesterday in case you missed it). Now that the video has been shared with the world, criticisms directed at the NFL, commissioner Roger Goodell and the Baltimore Ravens have been running wild all day. Flood still considers Rice a part of the Rutgers football family but stands firm in saying Rice’s actions do not meet the standards Flood expects of the Rutgers football program.
“Family is family but at Rutgers we hold ourselves to an extremely high standard and we expect a lot out of our players and we expect a lot out of the coaches and the staff that we have here in the Hale Center which we expect a lot out of our alumni,” Flood said. “I think because of those expectations, this is a sad day.”
Rice appears in a highlight video that plays inside High Point Solutions Stadium between the first and second quarters. Flood said he has no involvement with the video but said he believed a decision on what to do with the video package would be made by those in power to address it. Flood also does not expect this news regarding Rice to serve as any distraction to his current players as they prepare for Saturday night’s game against Penn State.