Common Sense Could Have Saved NFL from Domestic Abuse Furor

Ray Rice. Adrian Peterson. These names used to cause fans to wax poetic about on-field performances the previous Sunday or potential blockbuster fantasy football trades. Now, mentioning them conjures up nothing but negativity.

The recent revelation of domestic violence issues in the National Football League has given the league something serious to think about. Once the beacon of how profitable and well-run a professional sports league can be, the NFL is now operating under a cloud shrouded in darkness. The league’s actions, or lack thereof, are coming under fire, and rightfully so. It is impossible to predict exactly what the investigation being headed by former FBI Director Robert Mueller will reveal, but it is likely that it will reveal missteps on the part of the NFL in handling the domestic violence issue.

What further inflames the matter is that domestic violence involving NFL players is not a new controversy, yet a specific policy is just now being put forth. According to a database compiled by USA Today, domestic violence issues account for 85 of the 713 total NFL player arrests since 2000. A CNN story also recounted past NFL handling of domestic abuse episodes. Knowing this, it is bewildering that the Ray Rice situation was the catalyst for implementing a league-wide policy.

Professional football involves individuals trained to be aggressive, disciplined, and generally brutish. Being engaged in this behavior day in, day out, for years on end is bound to make it difficult to flip the switch off when a player goes home at night. This is not to downplay the seriousness of the domestic violence issue. There is no justification for the behavior. Both the victims and the aggressors need help, and not in the form of continued media revelation and scrutiny.

That being said, the NFL simply has not stepped up to the plate. Not only was the league’s initial investigation of the Rice case less than transparent, it seemed to almost be compliant with the behavior. Rice’s initial two-game suspension seemed to imply the NFL’s concern for its image, but no real concern for the seriousness of the behavior. Only after significant public backlash and the release of security camera footage from inside the elevator did the NFL double back and change the punishment levied.

The fact that the punishment was changed raises other issues. The players’ union, the NFLPA, is now involved, challenging Rice’s indefinite suspension. After the new evidence came to light, there was no indication that Rice had the opportunity to defend himself or to argue, as some claim, that the NFL had the elevator video footage all along. Although the public now widely believes that to be the case, Rice could have shown the world the complacency with which the NFL treated the situation. While it wouldn’t vindicate him, it would perhaps aid in the process of bringing the NFL to justice for its missteps. Admittedly, Rice has little incentive to help the NFL develop a domestic violence policy, but situations such as Rice’s are often the impetus for societal pressure on a league to do so.

The Mueller report may ultimately shape whether Roger Goodell and other NFL suits keep their jobs. But all of this could have been prevented by simply learning from the past and using common sense with regard to how sensitive the issue of domestic violence is. For such a successful league, it is mind boggling that these issues even need to be discussed.

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