Enough is enough. This plague of violence needs to end. I’m talking about our nation’s most popular sport: the multi-billion dollar juggernaut that is the National Football League.
Over the past few weeks, a number of troubling stories have rocked the landscape of the league. The Ravens’ release of running back Ray Rice, and his indefinite suspension by the NFL, was just the tip of the iceberg. Commissioner Roger Goodell’s botched handling of the entire situation is of paramount concern here.
But the news that followed was as equally disturbing. When ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Vikings tailback Adrian Peterson was charged with child abuse, I just couldn’t believe it.
That news, on top of the Rice scandal, Goodell’s awful PR fiasco, and Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy’s impending suspension all stem from domestic abuse indictments.
49ers defensive end Ray McDonald’s arrest on domestic abuse charges was almost too much to handle after the installment of the NFL’s new domestic abuse policy.
The league had already taken a huge hit when the video of Rice hitting then fiance (now wife) Janay Palmer was released to the public by TMZ. Now it has to deal with Peterson, Hardy and McDonald as well.
Let’s not even get into the failed proposed resolution to finally introduce HGH (human growth hormone) testing and reduce the penalties for marijuana usage. Why is the NFL in such a hole right now?
Goodell simply has too much power and not enough recourse. It seems like he doesn’t care about what his players do on their own time, which is a cause for great concern.
He handled his interview with the CBS Evening News like a smug, Armani-wearing know-it-all trying to blow off the media, which is what he has done quite a few times during his tenure as commissioner.
If Goodell and the rest of the NFL leadership continues down this road of PR nightmares, it might lead to a change at the top.
Despite having vocal support from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and reportedly the rest of the owners, Goodell is on thin ice with a lot of NFL fans. That should worry the higher ups, because let’s face it: even though they don’t want to admit it, the owners and league officials must realize that if they lose their fans, they lose their money as well.
Even though Goodell made the right move in recently suspending Colts owner Jim Irsay for six games and fined him $500,000 for his DUI and four counts of possession of a controlled substance arrests in March.
His initial suspensions of Rice on domestic abuse (two games) and Peterson (inactive for the week two game against the Patriots) were deemed too nonchalant or at least thought of as light.
Goodell’s and the NFL’s disciplinary committee’s use of suspensions are inconsistent. After revising Rice’s suspension to indefinite length following the release of the casino’s video, they created a new domestic violence policy in which first time offenders will be suspended for at least six games, while a repeat offender could be banned from a year to the rest of their life.
While crafting the new set of disciplinary actions, Goodell met with six national authorities on domestic violence. That was a step in the right direction, but his handling of the Rice situation has completely botched the forward progress he made.
The interview with “CBS This Morning” co-host Norah O’Donnell was filled with denials, brush-offs and minimal comments.
When asked if anyone in the NFL had seen the the video that depicted the elevator confrontation between Rice and Palmer, Goodell replied with the following: “No one in the NFL, to my knowledge, and I had been asked that same question and the answer to that is no. We were not granted that. We were told that was not something we would have access to. On multiple occasions, we asked for it. And on multiple occasions we were told no. I understand that there may be legal restrictions on them sharing that with us. And we’ve heard that from attorneys general and former attorneys general.”
O’Donnell addressed the fact that there a lot of people that don’t buy the “fact” that no one in the NFL had seen the tape, but Goodell stood by his statement.
The Associated Press (AP) then later that day released a report about an anonymous law enforcement official who said the NFL got the tape back in April, and an female NFL employee confirmed the delivery of the video via voicemail. However, the NFL continued to refute the report despite pressure from the media.
That’s not to say that Rice, McDonald, Hardy and Peterson are hardly at fault as well. No matter what their significant others did to them, Hardy, Rice, and McDonald should never have laid a hand on those women.
They are supposed to be role models for not only the college and high school players that will follow them in the pros, but for kids all over the country.
They have to keep in mind that they have a public image to uphold, and no matter what they do to try and make the public forget their terrible transgression of striking a woman, we will not forget.
This past Sunday, ESPN’s Hannah Storm emotionally broke down during a conversation she had with her three daughters about Rice’s terrible act against his wife. “…One of my daughters has her first fantasy football team this season. But at breakfast this week, instead of discussing how her team was doing, we watched the Ray Rice video play out again, in all its ugliness. I spent this week answering seemingly impossible questions about the league’s biggest stars: Mom, why did he do that? Why is he in jail? Why didn’t he get fired? And yesterday: Why don’t they even have control of their own players? So here’s a question: What does all of this mean for the future?” Storm asked the public.
The same standards apply for Peterson. Times have changed. ESPN’s Cris Carter made that very clear on Sunday morning when he stated “This is the twenty-first century! My mom was wrong. She did the best she could, but she was wrong about some of that stuff she taught me. And I promise my kids, I won’t teach that mess to them.”
It’s now not acceptable to hit your kid in the manner that he did. And the fact that allegations arose on Monday about another instance in which he abused his children is deeply disturbing. Peterson is on track to play during week three against the Saints.
However, now that additional allegations have been revealed to the public, will Goodell bring the hammer down and suspend arguably the league’s best running back for longer? Or will he allow the legal system to take recourse and make a decision then? Only time will tell.
Even though what Rice, McDonald, Hardy, and Peterson did are deplorable actions, the NFL’s reaction and consequential handling of the situation is the matter that is most concerning.
The inconsistent nature of suspensions, the scrambling to change policies to react to gruesome attacks by some of the league’s best players, and the apparent willingness to lie straight to the public’s face about evidence is highly disconcerting.
One has to wonder, as Storm did at the end of her nationally broadcast monologue, what does the NFL stand for?
Jordan Llanes can be reached at jordan.llanes@theminaretonline.com