Let us get as close to"apples-to-apples" as we can. Suh was suspended for stomping on a Packer player. He received two games. Now, he wasn't knocked unconcious, nor did he press charges. Is this just as bad as beating your wife?
I am also curious as to how this incident does not relate to the game? Rice is basically a sponsor of the NFL. Everything that these players do has a direct effect on the game. Why do you think they get suspended and fined for DUI'S and such?
I think the word you are looking for is 'representative', not 'sponsor'.
However, you are looking at this from the mindset of the sport, and not the mindset of a business. The sport hasn't been really called into disrepute, so try to separate the sport, because the league has.
Just like the NBA, McDonalds, Burger King, and Subway, the NFL teams are franchises: businesses of their own. Rice works for the owner of the franchise, and that is who he needs to answer to as far as his job and reputation as a footballer for that team goes. To be honest, his punishment/repercussions should be tons worse from his teammates, franchise, and franchise owner than what it has been, as well as what it has been from the league.
Now, if he had done something like what Greg Williams did in the AFL a few years ago while arguing with his opponent and shoved and pushed an umpire/referee down, that's a different story, as that calls his conduct in the sport into disrepute (subsequently, Williams was suspended for 9 matches). Or like the biter guy in the World Cup. That's where the league and officials come in.
For this, the worst should come from the law (the woman and the VAWA will deal with him financially), followed by the owner of the franchise for whom he works (who should take his job, to be honest). If he's lucky, he'll work his way back in from the CFL or Japan, after a few rounds of rehab and counseling.
BL.