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Ray Rice Wins Appeal, Reinstated in NFL

Was suspended for knocking fiancée unconscious.

Former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice has won his appeal and is now eligible to sign with any National Football League team. Rice was suspended indefinitely Sept. 8 after a video emerged of the player knocking his then-fiancée unconscious in a hotel elevator and dragging her body out—a violation of the NFL’s personal conduct policy. But U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones concluded that Rice neither lied to nor misled the NFL, because Rice told NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell about the incident during a June disciplinary hearing. Prior to the video, Goodell had suspended Rice for only two games. An NFL spokesman told ESPN that the league would “accept the ruling as binding.”