It is now officially fall. This means all the TV channels, newspapers, and radio stations will only be talking about football. There is nothing wrong with this, especially here in Wisconsin, the Packer Nation. Football unites our state, and in all honesty, football is that little bit of sunlight we need during our winters that seems to last forever.
However, of late, football, and more specifically the NFL, has been viewed in an extremely negative light amongst a recent scandal. About seven months ago, Ray Rice was caught on a surveillance video hitting his then fiancée, to the point of unconsciousness, and then proceeded to drag her body out of an elevator. TMZ Sports then released the footage online, although the tape only showed Rice dragging the body out, omitting the physical altercation.
Three months after the altercation, Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, suspended Rice without pay and fined him an additional game check. It has also been stated that at this time, Rice entered a pre-trial intervention program, which in short, could expunge his record.
The key to this football scandal is that none of this really came to light until TMZ Sports posted the video of Rice physically beating his wife online. The entire public had to witness a brutal act of violence before Goodell and the NFL stepped up to admit they were wrong.
They were wrong in thinking they could let this horrible person go scot-free. CNN reported that Goodell said, “I didn’t get it right. Simply put, we have to do better. And we will.”
There is no doubt that the poor handling on Goodell and the NFL’s part is what makes this act of violence that much more disturbing and demoralizing for all women that hear the story. However, after listening to the story for about a month now, there is one thing that I still cannot get over.
Ray Rice is the horrible, abusive “Bad Guy” in this story. We are focusing so much attention on the NFL and Goodell and John Harbaugh and the Ravens’ staff that we have lost sight of this fact. I agree 100 percent with the people who say what Goodell did is atrocious and disrespectful to all women.
Please remember it was not Goodell, or Harbaugh, or the entire Ravens’ staff that was in the elevator beating Rice’s fiancée until unconsciousness – it was Ray Rice, and yes, he needs to be punished for this.