Over the past couple of weeks the talk on all of the radio stations, sports channels, and sports broadcasters have been talking about the issues of domestic violence in sports and specifically the NFL. A lot of people have many different opinions about the issues that have taken hand, but for the most part people feel like domestic violence should not be tolerated. I believe that domestic violence shout not be tolerated and there should definitely be a strict penalty for a person and players the commit such a crime.
The issues of domestic violence in sports started up around 4 weeks ago when Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was video taped hitting his fiancé in a elevator knocking her to the ground the eventually dragging her out of the elevator as she laid unconscious. The event happened in mid February at a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In July the NFL Suspended Ray Rice for the first two games of the season. After his suspension was set, TMZ released the video of the elevator incident to the public. After peoples reaction to the incident the NFL went back and suspended Rice indefinitely from the NFL. Rice is now married to his fiancé (the same one he hit in February) and they are both working on Rice’s appeal to the NFL.
Rice has not been the only one in the past couple weeks to have domestic problems in the NFL. Several players have had problems with violence in the past couple months and the NFL is doing something about it. According to CNN Since 2000 85 out of a 713 cases players where arrested because of domestic violence. The NFL is turning it up a notch and is not playing about violence. They are now turning the notch up on the suspensions. In the past players where suspended for 2 out of the 16 games. Now since the Ray Rice incident the NFL has stepped the suspensions up to first offense a player is suspended for six games. If a player gets a second offense then he is suspended from the NFL then after a year the player can petition his suspension.
When I sit back and ask my self is the NFL doing enough to players when they get charged with domestic violence? I believe that they are. I believe that by the suspending players for a longer time ten after the second time they have the choice to you back in after a year if they feel like it is ok for you to do so. When I asked Rebekah Harman a female student at the University of Wyoming how she felt about the NFL efforts to decrease domestic violence she said ” I see how they are making an effort to correct the situation. Hopefully players think about what they are doing now before they take a violent action.”
The NFL is also taking action by educating players about the situation and how to prevent them from ever happening. When I interviewed Robert Herron a football player for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers he said ” They are making sure we a educated on how to help our selves and fellow teammates out when stuck in the situation.” The NFL has also taking action by in the media to try to prevent the bad that people have seen. I have seen more and more of the NFL community service commercial ads. Also I have seen more families being involved in football games around the NFL and have seen more specials on players with there families ever since the Ray Rice incident has accrued.
When interviewing a male student at the University of Wyoming Thomas Washington he said ” I do feel like it is a big deal, but there is also a lot to the story the people don’t know. His Fiance (Now wife) is still with him so he must not be a bad guy. His teammates also said this is unlike him so I believe he should be let back in the league because this is a one time thing for him and hadn’t happen before then.”
The question around the sport world is also why was Ray Rices suspension changed after the video was released? People are also saying that the commissioner of the NFL had already seen the video before he gave Rice his first suspension.
I believe that the NFL is doing the rite thing by trying to increase the penalty on violence. I think it is time to show athletes that its not rite to act violently and like everyone else you should be able to use you job also kids are looking up to these guys to and when they here them acting such ways then that is unacceptable.
Blair Burns Multimedia blog 