Everyone in the world has someone who is special to them, and you would never want that person to be physically assaulted. Anyone responsible for such a crime should be punished accordingly.

That’s the attitude the Ravens took Monday afternoon when they cut running back Ray Rice. TMZ released footage of a video taken inside the elevator when Rice cold-cocked his then-fiancée, now-wife Janay Palmer. Shortly afterward, the NFL suspended Rice indefinitely.

The Ravens should be applauded somewhat for their actions, but do not give the NFL any credit for the decision that was handed down today.

The NFL previously suspended Rice for two games and fined him more than $50,000 — in addition to over $470,000 lost from two game checks — as a result of the incident. Since then, the NFL has been heavily criticized for its approach to domestic violence situations leading to a change in league policy to inflict harsher penalties on future abusers. The NFL followed the Ravens decision on Monday by suspending Rice indefinitely.

What the Ravens did was the right move, but not the perfect one. Rice should have been cut from the team as soon as he was arrested. The same argument can obviously be made about the NFL. It shouldn’t have taken video proof to reveal to the team and the league that domestic violence incidents are a whole lot more serious than a two-game penalty would indicate.

Speak however you like about the culture of football and how teams and the league set a standard for behavior, but not enough players are cut for misdeeds. The Patriots may not have monitored Aaron Hernandez’s behavior correctly, but to the Patriots’ credit, as soon as he was charged with murder, he was off the team.

Rice certainly didn’t kill anyone, but watching the TMZ tape indicates he very well could have killed Palmer if he hit her hard enough and she had fallen the wrong way.

What should follow this decision is a national conversation about violence in football and the effects of playing an aggressive game. Anyone who has ever played football competitively knows that it takes a spark of insanity to be good at football. It takes more than a spark to be great. With the possible exception of quarterbacks, kickers and punters, aggression is celebrated in football.

I wasn’t bound to play college football because, as decent as I was at football in high school, I had zero anger toward my opponent. Those who succeed in the sport have a level of aggression that is prized on the field but can be dangerous off of it.

I love football. It is the only sport I played competitively past the age of 13, and it will forever be the game that I hold most dear. But I am troubled. There are many hurts plaguing the NFL, and in this doctor’s opinion, they are not going to be easy to heal.

Peter is a sophomore in Media. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @pbaileywells22.