Sixteen female Senators inked their names on a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that requested he beef up the league's domestic violence policy.
The release of a video this week showing now former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his wife in the head created an uproar. Rice was suspended indefinitely by the league and the Ravens cut him.
On Thursday, every female Democrat in the Senate — with the exception of Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Mary Landrieu, D-La., — signed the letter to Goodell, according to
The Hill.
Two of the four Republican women in the Senate, Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, also signed it.
"Tragically, this is not the only case of an NFL player allegedly assaulting a woman even within the last year," reads the letter, which calls for a zero-tolerance policy in the NFL.
"We are deeply concerned that the NFL's new policy, announced last month, would allow a player to commit a violent act against a woman and return after a short suspension. If you violently assault a woman, you shouldn't get a second chance to play football in the NFL."
On Wednesday, it was reported that someone at the NFL received a copy of the video in April. It depicts Rice punching Janay Palmer — his fiancee at the time — on an elevator at a casino in February. Palmer was knocked unconscious and Rice dragged her into a hallway once the doors opened.
Rice was arrested after the Feb. 15 incident, and on March 27, the day before the couple got married, a grand jury indicted him on third-degree aggravated assault charges. The NFL suspended him for the first two games of the season before the video was made public.
After the video was released on Monday,
TMZ's Harvey Levin claimed the NFL knew of its existence and did nothing about it.
"I have gotten conflicting stories on this, and we have some people saying they saw this [video]," Levin said. "But I now believe they actually turned a blind eye to it."
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said Monday that the league had not seen the video until TMZ released it on Monday, a statement that has since been contradicted by other reports.