Too little, too late.

There's no other way to put it: The Ray Rice video that TMZ has leaked to the world exposes Ray Rice as a criminal who has been protected by those in power. If you haven't seen it yet, we urge you to take a minute to watch Rice knock his then-fiancee unconscious, because today is every NFL fan's wake up call about how the NFL 'justice' system works, and it could bring down the Commissioner Roger Goodell, and a Super Bowl winning Head Coach in John Harbaugh.

We don't like the blame game. Too often, blame settles on one person, rather than questions being asked of existing power structures and the enabling factors that allow utterly incomprehensible decisions, like the 2-game suspension Rice received, to become reality. Rice deserves - and will surely get - his just rewards now regardless of any league punishment, but let it not be said that the NFL deserves credit for making the 'right' call. If that video wasn't in the public domain, Goodell and the Ravens were happy to ignore it's existence and continue paying Rice millions of dollars.

He will (at minimum) be out of the game during his best years, at a position that does not offer the type of longevity that say, a quarterback or wide receiver may enjoy. No, Rice's best case scenario is that he gets a couple more years playing a bit-part role if this blows over in a year's time. More likely, he will take as much of the money that the Ravens can't claw back and become a cautionary tale, like Rae Carruth.

Today though, we should all ask one question of the NFL, the Ravens, the Atlantic City DA, and everyone involved in this sorry mess:

"Why?"

Roger Goodell, why did you allow Rice to walk out of any disciplinary meeting without a copy of this video that you knew he held? What type of legitimate investigation ignores that type of evidence if it exists? Why should we believe you will deal with criminal actions of players in an appropriate manner, given your impotence in this matter?

Why, Baltimore Ravens front office staff - including John Harbaugh - did you not demand that Rice cough up the video before defending him so publicly, and perhaps more gallingly, giving his victim a stage where she could admit her own 'guilt'? How can you work in the community with women, given this complete lack of compassion for the victim of spousal abuse?

Finally, and perhaps most importantly for domestic violence victims in general, why did the authorities - who have almost certainly seen this tape or knew of it's existence - conclude that only a 'pre-trial intervention program' was necessary for a man who had knocked his partner unconscious with no physical justification for doing so?

We'll leave the latter for those who are better qualified, suffice to say that he isn't the first rich man whose presence on a court, field or mound has got him off the hook. We suspect some disciplinary meetings with less leniency may be forthcoming for those directly responsible for this abrogation of duty.

But the NFL... well right now they don't stand much higher than Ray Rice in our esteem.

Roger Goodell is, without simplifying the issue, a coward for his inaction on what could have been an open-and-shut win for the league. There are only two possible conclusions to draw from the league's insistence that they have not seen the video, and neither paint Goodell or the NFL in a positive light:

1) They didn't ask for video evidence - that they knew the defendant held a copy of - when ascertaining his guilt.

or

2) They saw the video and decided that it was in the league's best interests to cover it up.

Which, necessarily leads us to two further possibilities:

1) Roger Goodell was happy to deliver a meagre 2-game ban by virtue of wilfully choosing not to watch a video of Rice's actions

2) Roger Goodell saw this video, but decided that he could please the Ravens, the league and Rice by keeping the player on the field as much as possible.

Neither is particularly becoming for the Commissioner. Goodell, 55, should have another decade at the helm of the sport based on the ages of Pete Rozelle (63) and Paul Tagliabue (66) on their retirement. Every Commissioner has their crises, their labor deals, their CBA and free agency conundrums, and they expect to receive plenty of vitriol from all sides when dealing with those problems.

That's why they get paid so much.

But Goodell has failed spectacularly here and his job must surely now be in the balance. Remember his bosses are effectively those 32 team owners who rely on Goodell to grow the NFL's financial pot. That's why every decision he has taken since 2006 has been firmly about how much money he can extract from fans across America and the rest of the world.

Concussion settlements? Don't mistake that for anything other than Goodell attempting to nip that one in the bud before it cost the league too much. Player safety? Again, it's motivated by the desire to - should it ever come to court - prove the league cares about it's players. PED's? Oh sure he wanted hGH testing in the last CBA, but it was never a deal breaker, never something he was prepared to make a stand on.

No, Goodell is a coward. Why? because deep down, he craves the acceptance of the players too, and that, combined with his 'bottom-line' attitude towards the sporting spectacle he manages, is a murky combination. Don't give me the 'CBA wouldn't allow it' line either - Goodell has changed the rules since, and he'll change them again. If the NFLPA had challenged a more stringent punishment, that video footage should have shut them up or damned them too.

Oh, and the Ravens?

Well, they're up there with Goodell. We hope John Harbaugh gets a pounding in his presser tonight, because he deserves it. As Mike Freeman correctly points out, the Ravens organization is next on the block, and the result could end Harbaugh's tenure with the team. His vociferous defence of Rice was indicative of the double standards that have infected the NFL's disciplinary process over the years, particularly at team level.

Coaches value good players. They 'love them like sons', and then cast aside those who don't serve their purpose. It's a really simple dynamic that works for the on-field actions of a player, but invariably makes a mess of off-field crimes. Ray Rice was a great player for the Ravens, and so he is given leeway to make mistakes until they become so egregious that they hurt the organization.

Perhaps the saddest part of all this is that the Ravens would have been happier if we'd never known the shocking truth of Ray Rice's actions. They have released Rice at a point where to keep him would hurt their brand and because he was toxic to the Ravens as a commodity. Put simply, the negative publicity generated by this video outweighed the financial gain he could reap for them by performing well on the field.

They did not release him because they thought it was the right thing to do. That opportunity passed the team and Roger Goodell by some time ago. Now they, as much as Ray Rice, must face the consequences of their decisions.