I actually "know" Rice by three degrees of separation. His story from a friend of a friend of a friend: He hit her, but never knocked her out. But she was almost blackout drunk to begin with and slapping him in the face and basically daring him to do it because she knew he couldn't. The reason for the fight? She wanted to stay and get even more wasted and waste more of his money in the casino and he noped her. When you see him dragging her like that out of the elevator, it's because she's conscious and just refusing to stand up like a pouting child. It's possible he just made up that story for his buddies, but if it's true, the 2 game suspension is pretty punitive for something that he's legally allowed to do. And yeah, they are both stupid for getting drunk in the public eye.

Comparing Rice and Gordon is apples to oranges. Gordon left college under dubious circumstances and has been disciplined by the league before. Rice has never had another incident afaik.