Roger Goodell: Does He Hate Women, Or Is He Just Really Bad At His Job? [Op-Ed]
Roger Goodell hates women.
That may seem like an incendiary comment, but what other conclusion can one come to when he places a heavier burden of punishment on guys who smoke pot or tackle a little too hard, yet decides two days are suspension enough for knocking a woman unconscious?
Forget Ray Rice for a moment. His career is finished. If the Baltimore Ravens are done with him, the rest of the league will be as well.
After all, it was Baltimore that welcomed him back with open arms. It was Ravens fans who reprehensibly cheered his return to practice. If this organization and these fans don’t want him, then no one will take him following the release of “Ray Rice Elevator Video” part two.
Now a chorus of NFL players, past and present, are calling him out as well as the league and its disgraced, and hopefully soon-to-be-unemployed, commissioner, Roger Goodell.
That Ray Rice video really has me upset today. The act and NFL reaction are absolutely unacceptable. Shame, shame on all parties involved.
— Trevor Laws (@TrevorLaws) September 8, 2014
Am I the only one who believes it should be a lifetime ban for the first time a player commits domestic violence? They should be done period — Brady Quinn (@3rd_Goal) September 8, 2014
Absolutely disgusted with the tape I saw of Ray Rice and his then fiancé. The Ravens did the right thing by cutting him.
— Tony Gonzalez (@TonyGonzalez88) September 8, 2014
The official NFL response thus far has been that they “didn’t have access” to the graphic footage of Ray Rice knocking his now-wife/then-fiancée Janay Rice unconscious.
However, the fact they suspended him, that he made a public apology, and that anyone with half a brain knows he didn’t put her to sleep in that elevator by reading a bedtime story, combine to tell me Goodell and company knew full well what happened and, in a moment of showing their true colors, devalued the heinous attack as if it were just “one of those boys-will-be-boys” things.
Everything that the NFL has done since then – suspending a man for the entire season for smoking pot, instituting a new domestic violence policy, and now issuing an indefinite suspension of Ray Rice out of desperation – point to the reality that NFL leadership only takes domestic violence or violence against women seriously when it might affect their bottom line.
That’s a message that starts at the top, and at this point, there is nothing Roger Goodell can do short of his own resignation to repair the damage done to the league’s reputation.
But what do you think, readers? Should Roger Goodell step down over the Ray Rice elevator video? Share your thoughts in our comments section.
[Image via NFL]
