Two weeks into the NFL season, the biggest story has nothing to do with a play that transpired on a football field, but rather one that occured in an elevator.
On Feb. 15, 2014, Ray Rice, then running back for the Baltimore Ravens, and his now-wife Janay Palmer were involved in a physical altercation in Atlantic City. Shortly afterwards, videos surfaced displaying Rice dragging his unconscious wife out of an elevator. Needless to say, both the general public and the NFL as a whole were outraged. While he was convicted of third-degree aggravated assault, Rice avoided jail time by agreeing to attend a pre-trial intervention program. As a result of his offenses, the NFL suspended him for two games on July 25, 2014. Or so we thought.
On Monday, Sept. 8, TMZ released footage showing Rice violently punching his fiancé. That very day, Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL, suspended Rice indefinitely, and the Ravens immediately cancelled the remainder of his contract. While Goodell claims that the NFL office had not seen the video prior to its release to the public, multiple sources contend this assertion. Former FBI director Robert Mueller has been hired to investigate the league’s handling of the case. This fiasco has raised two major questions: should Rice have been further punished? Should Goodell remain the NFL’s commissioner after all of his obvious recent blunders?
While Rice’s original punishment was in no way sufficient, it is equally unreasonable for the NFL to effectively end his career after the fact. Goodell made a choice, albeit an poor one, to ban Rice for only two games. To renege on his decision, based solely on public opinion, is unfair to Rice, and sets an unsavory precedent for the future. These ideas are based on the fact that the NFL has had access to all the surveillance videos since early spring, which has been corroborated by numerous sources. The Associated Press released a 12-second voicemail from an NFL office number, in which a woman says, “You’re right. It’s terrible.” Reports state that this acknowledgement is confirmation of the NFL receiving the surveillance video.
There is no doubt that what Rice did was wrong, but according to multiple sources, he has been upfront about his actions since the beginning. The same cannot be said about Goodell. Recently extending Rice’s punishment is a textbook case of violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment in the American Constitution.While the NFL is a private organization and not bound by the constitution, the principle remains the same: Rice has been wronged by the NFL.
For example, if Rice had lied to the NFL about what had occurred during his multiple meetings with the NFL earlier this year, then Goodell’s recent actions would at least be somewhat justifiable. Unfortunately, the only difference between then and now is the dissemination of the incriminating video to the public. Justice should not depend upon public opinion, as it is an absolute. If we are to believe that Rice has never lied about his actions, then it is entirely unfair for us, and for Goodell, to judge him more harshly after the fact.
What is especially outrageous is that Goodell asserts that the NFL office had never seen the video until it was revealed to the world. There are two possible outcomes of this claim. If it is true, then it is appalling that the NFL didn’t try hard enough to obtain this video evidence. On the other hand, if this claim is false, then Goodell has failed us twice: first by only suspending Rice for two games, and second, for lying in order to retain what remains of his reputation.
No matter which way you look at it, it is unfair for Rice to have been punished twice, and his indefinite suspension must be lifted immediately. The NFL cannot be granted the power to retroactively extend punishments. Adding to the complications surrounding this case, Janay Rice, the victim of Rice’s violence, has vehemently defended her husband through various social media outlets.
In effectively ending the running back’s career, Goodell has not only damaged Rice himself, but also the original victim. Is this fair? While Rice’s suspension arguably should have been indefinite from the beginning, it is entirely unjust for Goodell and the NFL to further punish him after the fact because of public outcry.
Ever since he gave out the lenient two-game suspension, Goodell has been under fire. While he briefly reconciled with the public by recognizing that this was an insufficient punishment, the recent developments in this case have left his reputation in shambles. There is no question that he has made mistakes, but should Goodell be ousted as commissioner of the NFL? The answer to this question is an emphatic yes.
While Goodell has long been seen as an ineffectual puppet of the NFL owners, this incident has taken him to a new low. He has proven to be a terrible investigator and an undeniably unfair judge. The worst thing that Goodell has done is distract the public from Rice, the real villain, with his ineptitude.What should be a story about domestic abuse has transformed into an unfortunate tale of bureaucratic incompetency, which is certainly unfair to the millions of Americans who have themselves been victims of domestic abuse.
The next step for the NFL is obvious. Through this “independent investigation” led by Mueller, the league will identify and fire a scapegoat. The public cannot, and will not, be satisfied with this decision. The problem at hand is not the result of a single person, but of a league that is too rich and powerful to fail. While Goodell is not the only one responsible for this, he must take the fall, as he is the commissioner. Anyone else is not sufficient.
If Goodell is ousted as commissioner, however, the issue is not solved. The handling of the Rice case is a manifestation of an institution wide problem, and the NFL must make reforms in order to prevent scandals like this from happening in the future. Furthermore, the NFL should try to directly intervene in players’ behavior. It is absolutely unacceptable how many NFL players have had various run-ins with the law. This past week, another running back, Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings, was indicted on charges of child abuse, and defensive end Greg Hardy of the Carolina Panthers was benched following an assault conviction. That’s three cases emerging over the course of about a week.
This is a product of the culture created by the league itself. Every week, it seems as if another NFL player has broken the law in one way or another. One way to fix this is to make it absolutely clear that there is no tolerance for criminal offenses, especially those of a violent nature. By originally giving Rice only a two-game suspension, Goodell sent the entirely wrong message. While the NFL has the reputation for coming down extremely hard on drug protocol violators, it does not give violent criminals the same treatment, which certainly has to change. If the NFL can create a culture that is entirely intolerant of violent offenders, then the players will be forced to fix their behavior unless they wish to face severe consquences. I’m confident that the NFL is able to make these changes, all it takes is the will to do so.
