NFL and the Girls, Part 2

Last month, I wrote about the Ray Rice incident, and the complete and total failure on the part of the Commish and the NFL to appropriately handle the situation. And I hoped that would be the last of the clichéd post from a female football blogger. But alas, much like when you hide dirty laundry under the bed, eventually what appeared to be a perfectly lovely bedroom turns into a den of exploded laundry and you can do nothing but take a stilted breath and deal with the mess; such has become the NFL and its domestic violence “policy.”

In case you missed it, TMZ* released the prequel to the video that got Ray Rice suspended for two games. In short, prior to dragging his then-fiancée out of the elevator, Ray punched her in dead in the face like he was facing an opponent in the boxing ring and she was out cold.** After the video was released, the Ravens immediately released Rice, and Commish Goodell took his butt off his shoulders*** and suspended Rice indefinitely. For me, a series of questions followed:

1. Why was two games of punishment sufficient in the first place?
2. Since Goodell is probably lying, why wasn’t this video enough to get Rice fired more permanently?
3. And, what in the hell did Rice say to whitewash the story that was actually believable? (the official word is that Rice didn’t tell the truth and that’s why they were willing to give him another chance).

None of these questions were answered. Natch. But what we do know is that once the proverbial dirty laundry was aired, the NFL took swift action against Rice. But no so much against a 49ers player, Ray McDonald, who was also arrested on suspicion of domestic violence. 49ers CEO says he is going to let due process take its course. Frankly, the lawyer in me is cool with this, since Rice has been arrested, indicted, and entered into a post-arrest program; whereas McDonald has been arrested on suspicions only.

But this isn’t where it stopped. Much like back in 2009 when Tiger Woods was exposed as a serial cheater after one accusation led to what felt like 100 others, the same has happened in the NFL. First, Rice, then McDonald. Then, Adrian Peterson of the Vikings was indicted on charges of child abuse. And now, cover-ups of Brandon Marshall have resurfaced. Mostly, these charges are reflecting less on the players and mostly on the NFL and its blind eye policy to violence against women (and possibly children); and how that contrasts it’s scorn of drug use. As NFL Memes put it:

I’m not surprised by any of this. I’ve been practicing employment law long enough to realize that when the top revenue generators are in trouble, the CEOs/Chairmen/Senior Executives will do anything and everything in their power to keep that top generator making money. In the case of the NFL it’s the starters that are making that money. I’ve got $10 that says if a practice squad guy is arrested for domestic violence, he’d be out on his ass faster than he could say “not guilty.” Instead of surprise, I’m frustrated. I’m frustrated because the sports leagues are some of the only employers that can so strictly limit their employees’ off-duty conduct. The level of control they exert over these guys’ conduct should extend to punching a domestic partner in the face.

I hate to point out that nearly half of the fans are women (and therefore, half of the people with purchasing power of NFL fan items, and half of the people advertisers want to target) because I don’t think that should be part of the conversation. Men should be just as offended by a man who is professionally trained to hit someone hard enough to give that person a concussion is using that might to express anger/control/frustration/prove a point on a person of lesser strength. To give you a better analogy, if Mike Tyson gets into a bar fight, he’s guilty of assault with a weapon, because he’s a professional boxer. Football players may not be trained to land a jab, but they sure as shit know how to knock a 300 lb linebacker on his ass.****

Now, the NFL has (somewhat patronizingly) hired 3 women and promoted a 4th to develop a domestic violence policy. In this case, I’ll say right result for the wrong reasons. I’m hoping that fake claims don’t start coming out of the woodwork, but if this is what it takes to get a change in culture then so be it.

Just my two cents.

*The NSA of celebrities and sports figures

**Interestingly enough, he probably wouldn’t do that in a real game, since it would result in an injection. See: Wilkerson, Muhammad, in Jets vs. Packers just last week.

***Which is the polite, southern lady way of saying he took his head out of his ass

****Recent lack of tackling in Packers, Giants, Bears, and other games of the past two weeks notwithstanding.