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Ray Rice and wife Janay Palmer Rice. (AP file photo)
Ray Rice has won his appeal against the NFL and is free to sign with any team, a former federal judge ruled Friday.
Rice, 27, was released by the Baltimore Ravens and suspended indefinitely by the NFL on Sept. 8, after video was published of the Pro Bowl running back punching his then-fiancee into unconsciousness inside an Atlantic City casino elevator. He appealed the decision through the NFL Players Association on the grounds that he had first been suspended only two games before the tape became public.
ESPN's Adam Schefter and NFL Network's Ian Rapoport first reported Friday that Rice had won his appeal. In ruling for Rice, former U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones wrote that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell exhibited "abuse of discretion" when indefinitely suspending Rice.
"The imposition of a second suspension based on the same incident and the same known facts about the incident, was arbitrary," Jones wrote. "The Commissioner needed to be fair and consistent in his imposition of discipline.
"Moreover, any failure on the part of the League to understand the level of violence was not due to Rice's description of the event but to the inadequacy of words to convey the seriousness of domestic violence. That the League did not realize the severity of the conduct without a visual record also speaks to their admitted failure in the past to sanction this type of conduct more severely."
The NFL has no choice but to accept Jones' ruling as binding, a league spokesman told ESPN.
It's not immediately clear if any teams will move to sign Rice, who was on the downside of a productive career even before his off-field troubles. He rushed for 6,180 yards and 37 touchdowns in six seasons with the Ravens, but averaged a career-worst 3.1 yards per carry in 2013.