Obama intervenes in Ray Rice domestic violence row

Rice, 27, was suspended for two games and fined $500,000 after an video released earlier this year showed him dragging an unconscious Janay Palmer from the lift in a casino in Atlantic City in February.

A subsequent video filmed inside the lift showed him punching his then-fiancee – now his wife – in the face during an argument, knocking her unconscious.

Rice’s team, the Baltimore Ravens, released him after the video was published on the US website TMZ this week. The player has also been suspended indefinitely by the NFL.

Warning: video contains graphic images

Critics have questioned the American football league’s initial handling of the incident, with a number of celebrity commentators saying the original punishment was too lenient and questioning how much the sport’s authorities knew about the level of violence involved.

The Ravens were criticised in May for tweeting comments made by Janay Rice at a press conference, saying that she “deeply regrets the role that she played” on the night of the incident.

The team’s coach, John Harbaugh, said the team had only seen the video footage of Rice throwing the punch on Monday, prompting them to make the decision to drop him.

He said: “It’s something we saw for the first time today and it made things a little bit different.”

Rice signed a five-year, $35m contract with the Ravens in 2012 and helped them win the Super Bowl in the same year.

President Barack Obama’s spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement: “The president is the father of two daughters. And like any American, he believes that domestic violence is contemptible and unacceptable in a civilised society.

“Hitting a woman is not something a real man does, and that’s true whether or not an act of violence happens in the public eye or, far too often, behind closed doors,” the White House statement added, saying that stopping domestic violence was “something that’s bigger than football”.

Janay Rice posted a statement on the social media site Instagram on Tuesday, defending “the man I love” and criticising media intrusion into the couple’s private life.