A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how an athlete is made. One thing I neglected to mention is that an athlete makes a himself a bad name by doing something like what Ray Rice did. As we all know, there's been so much going on with domestic violence and the NFL. For someone who is a football fan, I am more importantly against striking women or children. Many other things have gone wrong including the way the NFL and Roger Goodell have been investigating the Ray Rice incident. Violence in football is one thing, but domestic violence, especially when it happens to someone in your own family.
Over the summer, we heard that Ray Rice was caught on video dragging his unconscious fiancee Janay Palmer. After meeting with Rice and Palmer, Roger Goodell suspended him for 2 games. What did not make sense to many of us at the time, including myself, is how can he suspend Ray Rice for 2 games, but Josh Gordon got suspended a year(now only 10 games)? After getting so much heat from the media and public outcry, Goodell made a new domestic violence policy in the NFL. Here's an even better question that many have, how come Greg Hardy, who was found guilty in court, was not suspended for even a game by the NFL? Roger Goodell really seems to be standing on thin ice with everything going on.
Earlier this week, TMZ released a video of what really happened in that video. How is it that TMZ was able to obtain the video, but the NFL was not able to? According to at least 4 sources, as well as the Baltimore Ravens, Ray Rice told both Ravens staff and Goodell exactly what happened in the video. Not only that, the video was in NFL offices for quite a while. Roger Goodell is acting like a good lawyer(and liar) and is covering up his tracks real well. For his sake, lets hope this independent investigation goes in his favor.
Depending on your sport, it seems that your sport can have a positive or negative effect on your personal life. If you want my opinion, I believe the hard hitting and violence on the football can and has taken a negative effect in some players personal life. Am I one to say it is the reason why Ray Rice punched his wife, Greg Hardy is guilty, or AP is currently being investigated? By all means I am not, but I am saying that it can certainly contribute. The NFL needs to learn how to help its players for so many reasons.
The NFL is a multi-billion product. They can not afford to lose sponsors, which is why the Ravens terminated Ray Rice's contract and the NFL indefinitely suspended him. What is worse for the NFL is that one of its poster boys, Adrian Peterson, is by indicted by a grand jury for reckless or negligent injury to a child. The Vikings have deactivated him for this weeks game, which for now is the right move. Why couldn't the Ravens do that? I understand Ray Rice is not AP, but it could have saved some face for them. They knew he was telling the truth, so that's why they should work with him.
Roger Goodell, and the NFL, should learn how to deal with situations like this better. Unfortunately, the timing of everything else couldn't have been worse. From Josh Gordon to most importantly Adrian Peterson, the NFL looks more like a train wreck than it does a car driving off in the sunset. It needs to clean up its image and needs to do it quickly. Yes the games are great, the product is great, but all this domestic violence is holding it back. Someone do the right thing and do it quickly.
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