A long time ago, I was told that it’s not OK to hit girls.

Today, that still holds true with me in light of the recent news pertaining to former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice.

On Monday, the celebrity gossip website TMZ released a new video of Rice punching his then fiancé and now wife, Janay, inside of an elevator at an Atlantic City, N.J., casino. Since then, Rice has been indefinitely suspended from the NFL.

Prior to the most-recent video release, Rice was shown dragging his fiancé from the elevator. That particular video wasn’t released until mid-February, shortly after the report surfaced about the altercation between the two.

From that altercation between the couple, a long timeline unfolded, which included Rice getting indicted for third-degree aggravated assault, him marrying Janay, Rice pleading not guilty to the charge and accepting to a “diversionary program,” the running back apologizing, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell meeting with the couple in New York and then the league handing down a two-game suspension to Rice this season.

Late last month, the NFL came out with a tougher policy in regards to domestic violence that was stemmed from continuing criticism of Rice’s punishment.

Fast-forward to Monday.

As expected, the media has sucked every morsel of the story and it’s gotten to where the Rices have been deeply impacted by it.

Janay recently posted on her Instagram account that it’s been a “nightmare.”

“I woke up this morning, feeling like I had a horrible nightmare, feeling like I’m mourning the death of my closest friend,” Rice said. “But to have to accept the fact that it’s reality is a nightmare itself.”

Mind you that Janay has defended her husband from the start and that’s saying something.

She went on to say that nobody knows the pain the media and unwanted opinions have caused the pain in my life.

“If the intentions were to hurt us, embarrass us and take all happiness away, you’ve succeeded on all levels,” she said on Instagram.

In spite of all that’s happened, Janay is still sticking by her man.

I learned that wives of former NFL players have said that they have stuck with their husbands and that there is a “misunderstanding” from the public about these families.

“I don’t think it’s too hard for me to understand why Janay would stay with Ray after everything we’ve seen,” Dawn Neufeld, wife of former NFL tight end Ryan Neufeld, said to TODAY’s Jenna Wolfe. “My mother stayed with someone who was abusive for over 10 years, and I think women stay with abusers for many, many reasons.”

Goodell told a CBS reporter that nobody from the league saw the second video tape before Monday.

I really don’t know whether to believe him or not.

Hopefully some good will come from this situation and that people will realize that it’s not OK to hit women, no matter the circumstances.