Earlier this week, a tape was released by TMZ showing what happened inside the elevator with Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice and, then girlfriend, Janay Palmer. It was an appalling site to see, and makes me sick to my stomach. A man should never, under any circumstance, raise a hand to a woman. Chivalry seems to be a thing of the past, but should be embraced once again.
I’m not sure what Roger Goodell or you, the general public, were expecting to see though. I want to start off by stating that Rice is a disgrace of a man and has tarnished the reputation of the NFL, and I hope he doesn’t run for another first down in the NFL ever again–although he was an abysmal runner over the past season and wouldn’t account for many more first downs in his career anyway. But “he was who we thought he was.” I didn’t need to see the new tape to make my decision on who Rice is.
The first video, months ago, from outside the elevator said it all. A man dragging an unconscious body out of an elevator with little regard for her well being. It was quite obvious what entailed leading up to that moment. Seeing the actual strike was gut wrenching, but we must have known what happened. We just wanted to bury our heads into the sand and not have to envision it.
With this new evidence, however, the NFL will no longer be able to bury their heads as well, and hope this too shall pass. This will be a huge scar on the NFL and how it’s players and the rules sanctioned against them are viewed. Goodell is to blame for not having a proper policy in place for domestic violence in the first place. Rice being suspended for two games is laughable. While players are getting suspended four games for marijuana, and Josh Gordon was suspended a full season (now reduced to ten games) for “the weed,” it just seems silly.
But people calling for Goodell to lose his job, players to stop playing until a resolve happens, and fans to stop watching is nothing short of ridiculous. Goodell didn’t strike Palmer that night in Las Vegas. He is a head of a company that can do it’s best to guide its employees down the right path. That’s all he can do. If a colleague at your office strikes his wife do you honestly expect your boss to be fired? Seriously?
Through every trauma or tragedy is a silver lining. I am glad that the world will at least take notice to this case. Did you know that one in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime? Every year, 1.3 million women are victims of assault by an intimate partner (reported by the National Centers for Injury Prevention and Control in Atlanta, Georgia). Also, according to the National Institute of Justice, approximately only one-quarter of all physical assaults and one-fifth of all rapes are reported to police. We need a high profile case like this to be on center stage so more people are aware.
Should the NFL have been pro-active and had a better policy in place before this incident–of course. Should Goodell and the NFL have reacted to the first video more harshly and rolled out a new domestic abuse program and policy months ago–without a doubt. But the fact remains is they are now doing it, and moving forward the steps are being taken to clean up the game and eliminate these ‘low lifes.’ Players are role models to our youth, and a strict punishment must be implemented to reflect on our youth.
But before you call for someone to be headed to the un-employment line, let’s make sure the blame is placed on the right individual. The biggest crime here isn’t the lack of policy in place by Goodell. The public needs to spend more time putting the blame on the ‘lack of a man’ who hit his girlfriend and kicked her aside like a piece of meat. We need to spend more time finding out why someone would do this to a person they claim to love. We need to look at programs that are out there to help these women that have been abused. We need to make the abused aware of places to go, numbers to call and what signs are of domestic abuse. This is where the attention should be placed. Not on the head of a game played with a ball.
I, for one, am very proud of the many players who give so generously to the many charities, visit the many children’s hospitals and are a shining example to the youngsters growing up. That’s the NFL I know and love. Embrace your game, and embrace the fact that with every new policy implemented they are cleaning it up for the good.
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