Ray Rice Fallout Lingers on, Off the Field

— -- Fallout from the NFL’s Ray Rice controversy reached on and off the field Thursday, as the Baltimore Ravens played their first game since new video of Rice’s attack on his now-wife emerged.

CBS Sports pulled an opening sequence for the broadcast featuring Rihanna, herself a victim of abuse at the hands of ex-boyfriend Chris Brown.

The broadcast was originally supposed to include a track of Jay-Z’s “Run This Town” featuring Rihanna, along with a comedic segment, CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus said. The changes were made to give the game coverage a more “subdued” tone and journalistic approach, McManus said.

Critics say the NFL should have made the connection sooner, another example, they say, of the league’s insensitivity to domestic violence.

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Tension from the controversy also spilled into the Baltimore stadium parking lot, with some fans wearing Rice jerseys facing backlash from other fans.

“I still support Ray Rice,” fan Christina Burke told ESPN. “I just don’t believe one action or mistake should define a person.”

Other fans covered Rice's name with tape, offering suggestions and messages amid the controversy.

Ravens head coach Jim Harbaugh reflected on the controversy after his team’s 26-6 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“We had a tough family situation this week,” Harbaugh said. “I thought our guys handled it tremendously, with class, with character. They responded.”

Rice was initially suspended for two games because of the Feb. 15 attack. But after video emerged this week showing Rice punching his then-fiancée Janay Palmer, he was released by the Ravens and indefinitely suspended by the league.

Thursday’s game followed an ESPN report that Rice told NFL commissioner Roger Goodell during a June 16 meeting that he punched Palmer, sources said, an assertion that contradicts Goodell’s statement in an interview earlier this week that “it was ambiguous about what actually happened” in the elevator attack.

Neither the NFL nor Rice’s lawyer has commented on the ESPN report.

Former FBI director Robert Mueller has been tapped to lead an independent investigation of the entire matter, an investigation that is set to begin “immediately.” That report will be shared with the public.

Additionally, 16 female U.S. senators penned a letter to Goodell demanding a zero-tolerance policy to domestic violence, writing, “If you violently assault a woman, you shouldn’t get a second chance to play football in the NFL.”