I Hope...

... that Ray Rice's punch to his fiancée's head really was a one-time thing, as they both claim. I hope he really is a good man who did one bad thing, as Ravens management claimed up until Monday morning.

I hope neither Ray or Janay has a problem with alcohol. They've apparently said they had had too much to drink on the night in question; I hope that was just a little over-celebrating on Valentine's Day and not their usual pattern.

I hope they have better communication and conflict resolution skills than they demonstrated on the video. Spitting, swatting and face-punching are not acceptable ways to resolve whatever their problem was that night.

I hope they've been exercising good money management, and that one or both of them have marketable skills not related to football, because Mr. Rice is now unemployed.

I hope Mr. Rice is indeed standing strong for his family, as he claimed yesterday.

Why do I hope all these things? Because I don't want Janay Palmer Rice to end up dead.

This has been a difficult week for them, to put it mildly. If Ray Rice is a serial abuser, if one or both of them regularly drinks too much, if their usual way of fighting and solving problems is to get physical, the events of this week could send them over the edge, with consequences far more serious than public embarrassment.

I don't want Janay to end up dead.