The NFL Thread

[Money]

This is disturbing on so many levels. Even more so because the NFL/ Ravens saw the tape in its entirety and they’re pretending they never saw it till yesterday. They were willing to give this man a slap on the wrist because they viewed him as a product to their multibillion dollar brand. Every photo of Rice and his wife taken together her head is bowed in a completely submissive role. People are using the fact that she married him as an excuse to absolve his behavior. Honestly, I don’t know what on earth compelled her to marry this man after he knocked her out cold and I’m not even going to try. Obviously this isn’t the first time he hit her. His nonchalant attitude as he dragged her out of the elevator is unbelievably scary. Not one ounce of remorse as she lay slouched on the floor. Even after she came to outside the elevator, he just stood there towering a few feet away as she limply got up on her own. The fact that they made her hold a joint press conference with Rice when the tape first got leaked and she took partial responsibility is jaw dropping. He’s a despicable human being and the NFL just as despicable. It took public outrage for them to terminate his contract. If not, this man - and many players just like him (Hardy) - would continue to be playing in the NFL while fans glorified them as heroes.

Say what you will about TMZ but after months of the NFL doing absolutely nothing they released it the first week of NFL kickoff for maximum effect.

[JaneAusten]

Well this is the same league and team that praises and erected a statue of a murderer outside their stadium.

While this incident is appalling, disturbing, and extremely sad for her in particular, sports in this country has ingrained into it a culture of turning a blind eye to this kind of behavior in the interest of the almighty dollar. At that's at every level, high school(remember Steubenville), college(Penn State), and professional. And it's much more engrained, accepted, and ignored than I think even we all realize. The NFL in particular has become IMO now just a league full of thugs. I would say the commissioner at a minimum needs to go, but he's elected by the owners who only care about money and under his leadership, the league has grown and become more profitable than ever and has surpassed Baseball as America's sport IMO. And frankly I doubt it would change anything.

This all coming on the cusp of the NCAA dropping Penn State's postseason ban and the school will again be able to offer it's full range of athletic scholarships come 2015.

[ChitHappens]

Perhaps she is with him because of the lifestyle she gets to maintain. She does not work, and yes, she married him after the heinous elevator incident. Does this absolve Rice? Absolutely not, but I won't be crying for her either. Now that he is unemployed, let's see how hard he is to leave.

I'm not being insensitive here because I grew up in a household where my father beat my mother weekly, and if we were lucky, several times a week. It was like clock work. Being a child and seeing your mother with swollen black eyes and watching your father twist her arm so far behind her back until she submits??? Yeah, been there done that. At the time, I was too young to ask the question "why did she stay". What I do know is that my father kept all 10 of us in nice clothes and we never wanted for much. One day, the police showed up and we watched them greet my father at the door to escort him in to get his things and leave. He was to never return and he didn't. My mother then had 10 mouths to feed with no job, skills or prospects. We had to go on welfare and many times we were hungry. For a time, we resented my mother for making our father leave. We didn't know any better.

Janay gets to wear red bottoms and carry purses that are in the 5 digits! She has many options, but when you get to live a certain lifestyle, you are more willing to put up with certain things. Marrying a man who put his fist thru your face? Oh well!

The NFL did nothing here but guarantee the money keeps rolling in. What did this do for domestic violence? Only showed rich abusers that they need to be more cautious of where they do their abusing.

What message do women take from this? Not one bit of progress has been made!

[ChitHappens]

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/09/janay-rice-instagram

[JaneAusten]

That's sad.

Honestly there is nothing anyone can say that will make his behavior and even more so, the actions or lack of action on the part of the NFL in any way acceptable or excusable or remotely justified. The NFL has a history of looking away from the actions of those athletes who bring in the dollar. I for one am not ok with any organization or institution enabling this kind of behavior for money. And these are people that our children aspire and look up to? Yeah no thanks.

Nothing is going to change. Penn State's ban was removed let's all celebrate.

[ChitHappens]

I'm just not sure why anyone believes the NFL should have taken action at all, and when they did, it was the wrong action. This does nothing for domestic violence and it's not limited to the NFL. This should not be about football. It should be about domestic violence.

[Money]

It's interesting because I had a discussion with my boss and I asked him why he thought she stayed with him after that attack. Without hesitation he said money. I thought he was oversimplifying the answer. Yes, money may be a factor but he portrayed women to be gold diggers -at the least the ones who stayed with rich men who repeatedly beat them and never left. To him, the days of the long suffering wife who is financially dependent on her husband as a means to survival were long over. I read an article in which the author said Ice Cube once told her relationship is like a transaction and sex is the payment. I have no doubt many of these rich, black athletes - and yes, I said Black - holds this view. If they don't like it they can leave since women are a dime a dozen. I'm not surprised Janay very swiftly and unequivocally defended her husband. Women abused by their husbands always do.

[JaneAusten]

I don't think anyone is saying it shouldn't be about domestic violence. Yet there is a history of sports excusing the actions of a few for the almighty dollar. The NFL, the NCAA, and high school athletics have turned a blind eye to this kind of behavior in boys and men, setting a tone that it's "ok" to break the rules, therefore helping enable such behavior.

Plus these institutions actually have moral clauses that are in place that players and personnel are expected to follow. If someone can't adhere to those then they suffer the consequences, simple as that.

[marceline]

I felt the same way. I'm more outraged by the legal system for letting him off with a slap on the wrist.

That said, it's been apparent for years that the NFL is an organization of psychopaths. The concussions, the tax exempt status, the way they turn a blind eye to violence and crime, the Washington team name, the bullying, the homophobia, etc...there's nothing redeemable about this organization but that won't stop people from throwing money at them. Come game day, all the people clutching their pearls will be right there in the stands. Football fans (40 percent of whom are women) have proven time and time again that they don't care about anything but the game.

If she's really in this just for the money, the best thing she could do is bide her time, kill him and collect his estate and life insurance.

[Wales2004]

The NCAA doled out the wrong punishment. Taking away scholarships and imposing bowl bans (or now, championship contention) doesn't address the culprits. Instead it punishes individuals who had nothing to do with either the crime or the cover-up. It's infortunate that the NCAA continues to punish the wrong people and no challenge is ever made to that. Punishing the players who are still on a team, for instance, because of infractions/violations by someone who "escaped" to the NFL is ridiculous.

Jerry Sandusky's Penn State enablers (all those who looked the other way) should be punished, not the players or the new coaching staff. Hiding behind the institution and making others pay for crimes they didn't commit is not proper punishment.

[Wales2004]

Domestic violence is another topic that society in general does not know how to resolve or properly address. Whenever society does not know how to deal with a particular issue, it's allowed to fester and periodically gets the spotlight when something the media finds noteworthy occurs.

I don't see the point of racializing this as it pertains to athletes. And I don't think generalizing the habits of rich black athletes does anything either. How does anyone know that "many" of them aren't about family values?

[Eric83]

I'm not sure why you're singling out black men and trying to make this about race. Seems like when someone black does something negative the generalizations start running rampant. Non black atheletes hold this view as well.

[JaneAusten]

Most of the people who were involved or known to be involved are gone.

I think the problem is not just one incident it's a culture that has been prevalent there and at the big universities for years. It's really not much different than the NFL, in that the interest in attracting the best players, going to the biggest bowl games is not about love for school or academics. It's all about money. Frankly I don't see what the issue is with barring them from bowl games, who exactly is that hurting.

How do you break or change that culture? It takes more than NCAA sanctions, but again this was a situation, you broke the rules and moral clauses the NCAA has in place, you pay the price. It's unfortunate that scholarships to students who really wanted to goto Penn State were withheld(and I am not talking about those who go to get the extra perks the sports programs give them or just go as a stepping stone to the NFL). But the NCAA is a joke similar to the NFL.

[Wales2004]

I understand that money is the main draw for some, but I don't want to assume that every college football player or basketball player is in it just for the money (in terms of pro potential). Some of them probably already know they won't go pro and just love the sport, comraderie, etc. Whose to say that the chance to compete in a bowl game might not be one of the highlights of their athletic lives? I wouldn't want to have worked for years to get on a college team with hopes of playing in a major bowl game, only to have that taken away because some administrator or coach violated rules, et al.

NCAA sanctions should be revised so that they fit the violation instead of the one size fits all approach. Just like the NFL, they do not have punishment that fit certain actions so they make it up as they go along. Look how a two-game suspension was made into a six-game suspension policy, and a video turned two-games into an indefinite suspension.

None of the discussions surrounding this seem to be about addressing the actual issue in terms of implementing any type of program for NFL players and their spouses/partners. Instead it's about getting rid of the commissioner, speculating about Ray Rice's football future, labeling his wife as a gold-digger, and on and on. Some of those issues need to be pursued but suggestions for changes should be somewhere in that discussion.

I may watch ESPN but I despise it with a passion at times like these. All these disingenuous people mechanically saying it's disgusting and acting as if they are morally above all of this. Why have people who are not knowledgeable about abuse sit there and spout off nonsense about such a serious topic? Some of them are guilty of the very things over which they sit there and judge others. I wish they had a show that only reported information and nothing else (no commentary, analysis, bloviating).

[DRW50]