I'm finding this situation emotionally draining to keep on top of but I'm glad it's prompting larger conversations, at least for now. Time will tell what the long term effect(s) will be, if any.
I thought the segment they had on Democracy Now! this morning was really insightful and made some powerful points, which you can see
here.
[
TW: they DO show the video footage of the incident several times during the broadcast]
Maddow also had a good segment on it as well and mentioned the atrocious reactions by the Fox News hosts which Happy_Go_Lucky alluded to (atrocious even for Fox News). Video is available
here.
I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the NFL did this as a mad dash to save face and to avoid bad PR (and potential loss of ad revenue and ticket sales) as opposed to any human moral convictions. They have a long, notorious history of covering up violence against women committed by their players and the whole reason it's getting attention now and didn't so much when it first came to light is because of this most recent video tape showing "objectively" what happened -
because the victim's word is never good enough. 
They knew for months what happened, knew he knocked her out cold, knew he was arrested, knew there was footage. If it was done out of personal conviction by the NFL, why wait until the video came out and was leaked to the public?
Furthermore, the Ravens' own official Twitter account posted that Janay Rice "deeply regrets the role she played the night of the incident." That tweet has since been deleted (only as of 24 hours ago), but hey, screencaps:
The Ravens also staged a press conference where Janay Rice was made to sit beside Ray Rice and apologized at Ray Rice's goading: "I think my wife has something to say. I don’t want to be the only one who [speaks]. We’re in this together." Cue the forced apology from the woman who was abused... by her abuser.
You can find the written transcript from their conference if you don't want to watch the video
here.
One of the points worth mentioning that I've heard is how the NFL's resultant new policy for dealing with DV cases (resulting in suspensions and bans for the players, depending on the number of offenses) may actually discourage women from coming forward as it threatens their primary source of income in what is an already typically short-lived but lucrative career. I don't have a perfect alternative solution to this but I think it's something worth considering.
One silver lining I've found in this is the sort of conversations which are happening, especially on social media. On Twitter specifically, there are currently two main hashtags, #WhyIStayed and #WhyILeft, which are full of women (and men) writing about their own experiences with DV. There's also a #WhenILeft hashtag which is talking about the things which happened after they left their abuser. I've been seeing it all over my Twitter timeline since this story gained momentum and have seen tweets with those hashtags retweeted by people I never would have expected to retweet them. I have also seen people I know personally opening up about their stories for the first time and engaging in hard conversations and putting their face to the issue for the people in their lives in a big way. So, I see that as one big positive to come out of an incredibly negative situation.
I'm very cynical when it comes to professional sports culture and women (and frankly, after Penn State, children) and I suspect this will not be the last public outcry from this kind of incident, but if nothing else I'm glad people are talking, even (especially) if the NFL won't.