Last Saturday, Baltimore Raven’s running back Ray Rice was involved in a domestic dispute that led to the arrest of him and his fiance, Janay Palmer in Atlantic City, N.J.

During the dispute, Rice struck his wife and knocked her unconscious. A surveillance video shows Rice dragging an unconscious Palmer from an elevator before security arrived.

The police report said that both Rice and Palmer struck each other with their hands. However, Deadspin.com said that according to their sources, Palmer spit on Rice, which caused him to get upset and punch her.

Thursday morning on KRLDFM 105.3 “The Fan’s” morning show “New School,” there was an enormous amount of callers that supported Rice for hitting Palmer. Keep in mind, the callers were both men and women.

They said that spitting on someone was the greatest sign of disrespect anyone could do. One female caller said that spitting is considered an assault and if anyone, regardless of sex, assaults you they need to be prepared for a fight. Palmer spitting on Rice has not been confirmed, but whether she spit on him or not, whether she struck him first or not, there is no situation where his actions are permissible.

When I was a young boy, my father instilled in me three chief virtues I should try to live by: 1) Tell the truth; value your words because they carry weight and you will be judged by what you say just as much as what you do. 2) Treat others as you would have them do onto you because karma is unforgiving. 3) Never — I repeat — never, under no circumstances, hit a woman.

I was raised to believe that in most instances a man will be physically stronger than a woman. I am not sure what Ms. Palmer’s physical stats are, but based on the surveillance video it is clear that the 5’8″ 212 lb running back was the
physical superior.

Let’s say she did spit on him. Let’s say she also punched him. Do you think it would be impossible for Rice to wrap her up and hold her down until security arrived. Security arrived relatively quickly after he knocked her out. It is reasonable to assume they would have arrived quickly enough to restrain her.

Just based on appearances, I’d say Rice has at least 100 pounds on Palmer. That would put Palmer around 105-125 pounds, that is about the average weight of a 14-year-old boy. An NFL athlete should be able to restrain a 14-year-old. He should be able to restrain his fiance. He should not feel it necessary to upper cut his fiance.

Let me be clear, I am not saying men should not hit women because all women are physically inferior; had Rice been fighting with Rhonda Rousey, he would have been the one being unconsciously dragged out of the elevator.

What I am saying is that, at least for me, there should be an embedded value and respect for women that tells men that hitting a woman is wrong.

If Palmer was armed and Rice’s life was in danger, I wouldn’t be writing this column. As of right now, we don’t know who struck first, we also don’t know if Palmer actually spit on Rice.

However, we do know that she was not armed. Rice was not in immediate danger. Was the uppercut excessive? Absolutely it was. Was it wrong? Without a doubt.

It is an incredibly gutless, cowardly thing for a man to strike a woman. I don’t know; maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m the crazy one, but it just seems wrong.