2. Here's a really good piece on the cynical reasons the NFL won't confront gender violence:
Two games. Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was caught on a security camera dragging his unconscious wife-to-be Janay Palmer by the hair, after knocking her unconscious, and the National Football League has chosen to suspend him for two games. Rice in fact will return to the field just in time to wear the NFL’s pink-festooned uniforms to celebrate their deep commitment to breast cancer awareness—and their even deeper commitment to selling sixty-dollar jerseys marketed aggressively to their female fan base. In fact, the Ray Rice all-pink number is available for purchase right now. The NFL actually needs a Violence Against Women Month instead, to raise awareness about a killer that malignantly throbs in every locker room. But that is not going to happen, and it is worth understanding why.
The NFL, as many have been writing for too many years, has a violence-against-women problem. The incidents are too many to catalogue. But by suspending Ray Rice for two games, a lighter suspension than the league’s marijuana smokers receive, Roger Goodell and his coterie of owners are sending a message that it just doesn’t matter. I don’t know why anyone would expect more from a league notorious for racist nicknames, out-of-control owners and a locker-room culture that would shame some high schools. But still. Two games. I did not think the NFL had the capacity to stun me with its blockheadedness, but I was wrong.
There is without question an important discussion to have—an unheated discussion not made for sports radio—about why violence against women and football seem to walk arm-in-arm. We could discuss the inability for football players to compartmentalize violence, taking the hyper-aggression of their sport home with them—something that affects families in the armed forces as well. There is a discussion we need to have about its connection to traumatic brain injury, and the ways that some of the side effects according to the NFL’s own neurologists, are mood swings, fits of temper and the inability to connect emotionally with the people in their lives. There especially is a discussion we need to have about a culture of entitlement that starts in high school and runs even more profoundly in college football, where young men produce billions in revenue and are often “rewarded”, since they can’t be paid, with a warped value system that says women are there to be taken.
If we can confront how players deal with violence and with the women in their lives, then we can prevent tragedies before they take place. Unfortunately, the NFL has shown absolutely zero interest in taking this issue seriously. The league didn’t do anything after Kansas City Chiefs player Jovon Belcher killed the mother of his child, Kasandra Perkins, before taking his own life in front of his coach and general manager.If they did not do anything then, they are not about to take it seriously now. It is very difficult to not be cynical about why it is so casually indifferent to this issue. To discuss violence against women means by necessity to talk about everything endemic in the NFL that creates this culture. The NFL has been aggressively marketing its sport to parents, telling them that, despite what they may have heard, football is as healthy for their children as a Flintstones vitamin. To discuss the causes of violence against women means to put its golden goose under the harshest possible light. It means producing negative publicity, and it means blowing wind on the brushfire movement of young parents who do not want their children playing this sport. To not discuss it, however, means not only ignoring a problem that won’t go away. It means sending a message to every general manager, coach, player and fan that the worth and humanity of women is at best negligible.
That is why when Rice’s coach John Harbaugh said, upon learning of Rice’s suspension, “It’s not a big deal, it’s just part of the process,” he is just taking his cues from the league that provides him with employment. Harbaugh also said, “He makes a mistake, all right? He’s going to have to pay a consequence. I think that’s good for kids to understand it works that way.” Unfortunately, the only lessons that kids are going to learn from this episode is that the vaunted “shield” of the NFL protects perpetrators of violence against women, for the sake of what it sees as the greater good. When its “breast cancer awareness month” begins, people should take these jerseys and light a big old bonfire outside of NFL stadiums. They are symbols of a monstrous joke that sees women as either revenue streams, cheerleaders or collateral damage to what takes place on the field.
Domestic violence is NEVER about one night. That's what I could never get over about Rihanna and Chris Brown, how many people do not understand that domestic violence is like racism. It's not about one event. It's about a complex system of devaluation and denigration in which eventS with an S happen.
I have no idea what the circumstances were of that "one night" but I guarantee you it wasn't the first time he put his hands on her and if by some chance it was, that doesn't excuse the cycle of mental and emotional abuse he surrounded her with that lead to that moment.
Exactly. I read in another article that she said she blamed herself and my heart hurts for her. When a man punches a woman so hard it knocks her out it is not the first times he's done such a thing nor will it be the last. What will the NFL say the next time he's arrested? When he kills her?
I loathe Jim Irsay with the fire of 1000 suns, but part of the reason I loved the Colts so much when we were in Indy is that the Colts players were great assets to the community. I don't think I would have been such a fan of that team if that wasn't part of it. It felt good to root for them, you know?
Yeah, this is what I mean about it being a cultural/community thing for some. I feel the same way about Buffalo. Some athletes hate living in Buffalo (*Cough*OJSimpson*Cough*GoodRiddance*). But a lot get there are find out they LOVE it. Jim Kelly did NOT want to be drafted by Buffalo, Minnesota or Green Bay, since he had gone to college in Florida, and tried his damnedest to get out of having to play for Buffalo. And you know what? He retired over 15 years ago and he still lives there. He's going through cancer treatment and is really supported by the community. The same is often true for hockey players. Some have done a lot for the community in terms of charity work. Human being are... sadly human. Some are better than others.
Sometimes, the only thing a city has going for it is hope in its sports teams. I sound like a Disney movie. Ducks never say die!
BUT, I am a Ravens fan and will continue to cheer for the Ravens because there are some good players that are great people on that team. One player doesn't soil the bunch.
Go Torrey Smith
I don't even like football, but I love Torrey Smith (and will cheer for the Ravens).
It's the same reasoning as thinking all cops are bad, because of one dirty one. Or all Marines are bad because one killed his wife. I wish there was a no tolerance policy. A player should be cut if they're arrested. I know that will never happen.
Well, Aaron Hernandez was. Ray Lewis was not. Guess you have to have mounds of evidence stacked against you in a murder case in order to not play for the NFL anymore... plus an arrest without bail. That kind of puts a kink in your coach's plan.
I'm not sure I agree with you. When the Eagles employed Michael Vick, I stopped watching, stopped cheering for them, stopped buying jerseys or any other gifts for people. I was unwilling to support a team that would hire a dogfighter. If people don't let the NFL know that they disagree with the NFL's policies by not spending money/cheering for/talking about the NFL, will it ever change? Why would you cheer for a man that you know did such a thing?
I live in Eagles country. I am a football fan (of another team). I think there is a huge difference between shrugging your shoulders and saying, "welp, guess I'm gonna have to buy my kid a Vick jersey! GO DOGFIGHTING!" and continuing to be a fan of a team which you have liked since childhood and which is part of a kinship you feel with your friends and your community, and which gives you something fun and traditional to do 16 Sundays a year.
I would never, ever, ever buy myself or my child a Vick, Roethlisberger, Ray Rice, Ray Lewis, Kobe Bryant, etc, etc jersey. We would discuss why. I think there can be inherent value in being a fan of sports and sports teams within reason... but I'm also not shocked that a game/profession which supports violence and a culture of "manliness" which equates to toughness and violence includes a bunch of men who are violent. If no one ever bought Vick's jersey and if ticket sales didn't increase when he was hired, the Eagles would not have thought he was a good hiring decision, KWIM? Obviously there are people who DID buy his products.
PS, Rice wasn't convicted of domestic abuse, which I think is one reason the NFL won't do more about the situation. And the one person who could press charges won't and can't be compelled to testify because she is now married to him, which is the saddest part of this whole thing.
This is my whole point: why are people okay with propping up an industry that is all about promoting male violence?
"What I've tried to employ the female members of my family, some of who you all met and talked to and what have you, is that again, and this what...I've done this all my life, let’s make sure we don’t do anything to provoke wrong actions. Because if I come, or somebody else come, whether it’s law enforcement officials, your brother or the fellas that you know, if we come after somebody has put their hands on you, it doesn't negate the fact that they already put their hands on you. So let’s try to make sure that we can do our part in making sure that that doesn't happen.”
Here's one of Stephen Smith's "apology" tweets: Who on earth is denying that? But what about addressing women on how they can help prevent the obvious wrong being done upon them?
Domestic violence is NEVER about one night. That's what I could never get over about Rihanna and Chris Brown, how many people do not understand that domestic violence is like racism. It's not about one event. It's about a complex system of devaluation and denigration in which eventS with an S happen.
I have no idea what the circumstances were of that "one night" but I guarantee you it wasn't the first time he put his hands on her and if by some chance it was, that doesn't excuse the cycle of mental and emotional abuse he surrounded her with that lead to that moment.
Exactly. I read in another article that she said she blamed herself and my heart hurts for her. When a man punches a woman so hard it knocks her out it is not the first times he's done such a thing nor will it be the last. What will the NFL say the next time he's arrested? When he kills her?