If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, can it also be said that the NFL can cure a little pounding as long as there's not an ounce of video evidence?
Or at least none that's out for the public, aka the customer base, to view?
What’s The Point?
The National Football League and Baltimore Ravens chose to protect an investment in Ray Rice over any desire to protect women from domestic abuse.
They tried, but fumbled.
The National Football League is reeling from its botched handling of Baltimore Ravens star Ray Rice, who was arrested Feb. 15 at a New Jersey casino. His then-fiancee, Janay Palmer, was arrested and charged with assault, too, as the pair were arguing and fighting as they got on an elevator.
Early video of the incident showed Rice dragging his fiancee's limp body out of the elevator after the doors open. He was indicted by grand jury in March, and married Palmer the next day. The NFL in July, having gathered clear evidence he struck Palmer and rendered her unconscious, gave Rice a two-game suspension. All the concerns about concussions apparently don't extend to NFL wives.
Rice avoided criminal charges by agreeing to court-supervised counseling. We hope it helps.
The Ravens supported their friend and the team's investment. Coach John Harbaugh called Rice a "person of character." The team's official stance is "there is more to Ray Rice than this one incident." Rice apologized and his new wife said she's sorry for the role she played in the fight. Just keep those checks coming, please.
By the end of August, League Commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledges he "didn't get it right" on the two-game suspension. Then, early this week, the celebrity-watching site TMZ released the full video surveillance from the hotel. Inside that elevator, the brutality was shocking. Janay Palmer is out cold after Rice got steamed. No longer able to pretend it was just a marital dust-up, the league suspended Rice indefinitely and the Ravens ended his contract with the team.
Sadly, some fans bristled at those actions. They gave in to the notion that athletic megastars paid millions to win deserve protection so they can perform on Sundays. What counts is what happens between the end zones, right? And the league's behavior suggests they acted when they could no longer make the public relations work, not because they suddenly became advocates against domestic violence.
Now, a former FBI director is investigating the league's handling of the Ray Rice probe amid questions about what league officials knew and when. It's a mess that could have been avoided with the proper amount of outrage over a muscle-bound man violently striking a woman. The league knew what it needed to know even without the evidence of the video from TMZ. That's what's so disturbing: Are players only disciplined when the instant replay shows incontrovertible evidence that the original call should be overturned?
Sadly, women in abusive relationships had to listen to people wearing high-dollar "27" jerseys talking about how everyone deserves a second chance. And how the punch inflicted is really a personal matter between a man and his wife.
Is it any wonder so many women do not report domestic violence?
Commentary on 09/13/2014