Football is America’s sport. It’s no wonder we will put it before so many other things in life. The weekend of Superbowl Sunday, several of my teachers did not assign homework. It’s important to America; it’s tradition. But the game should never come before a person’s well-being.
When I came home from school, my parents were talking about this “Ray Rice” incident. It related to what we had been discussing in class that day about Adrian Peterson, a player on the Minnesota Vikings, who “disciplined” (beat) his son with a tree branch repeatedly. He was released on bail and the Vikings seem to be standing behind him.
I went to go check out some more details on my own. I was horrified at what I saw.
When you google search “Ray Rice” one of the first things that comes up is a video with over 8 million views within the past week. The video was astonishing. The caption reads “This is what a two game suspension looks like -- Ray Rice delivering a a crushing punch to his fiancee's face, knocking her out cold ... and TMZ Sports has the shocking video.” Rice punches his fiancee in the face and proceeds to drag her unconscious body out of the elevator, stepping over it quite angrily. This gets him suspended for 2 games. Once the public got a hold of the video; however, N.F.L commissioner Goodell modified his punishment to an “indefinite suspension." Goodell is reacting in such a manner now because of the public outcry over the horrifying video.
When I came home from school, my parents were talking about this “Ray Rice” incident. It related to what we had been discussing in class that day about Adrian Peterson, a player on the Minnesota Vikings, who “disciplined” (beat) his son with a tree branch repeatedly. He was released on bail and the Vikings seem to be standing behind him.
I went to go check out some more details on my own. I was horrified at what I saw.
When you google search “Ray Rice” one of the first things that comes up is a video with over 8 million views within the past week. The video was astonishing. The caption reads “This is what a two game suspension looks like -- Ray Rice delivering a a crushing punch to his fiancee's face, knocking her out cold ... and TMZ Sports has the shocking video.” Rice punches his fiancee in the face and proceeds to drag her unconscious body out of the elevator, stepping over it quite angrily. This gets him suspended for 2 games. Once the public got a hold of the video; however, N.F.L commissioner Goodell modified his punishment to an “indefinite suspension." Goodell is reacting in such a manner now because of the public outcry over the horrifying video.
Once I watched the video, I was outraged to find out that his fiancee (now wife) is actually standing by his side in all of this. In this picture, she holds his hand while walking into court with him.
I think the N.F.L’s attitude towards these types of situations are appalling. They don’t seem to particularly care what their players go home and do to their wives and kids. It speaks to how they feel about women and about domestic violence. What does this say about how America views child abuse versus spousal abuse? Is one more “tolerated” than the other? It seems that the N.F.L feels this way, since Peterson had much less of a punishment for beating his 4 year old defenseless child than Rice had for knocking out his fiancee. These 200-300 pound men are abusing their loved ones who have no defense. In my opinion, both certainly deserve more of a punishment for abusing another person than just a “suspension.”
I think the N.F.L’s attitude towards these types of situations are appalling. They don’t seem to particularly care what their players go home and do to their wives and kids. It speaks to how they feel about women and about domestic violence. What does this say about how America views child abuse versus spousal abuse? Is one more “tolerated” than the other? It seems that the N.F.L feels this way, since Peterson had much less of a punishment for beating his 4 year old defenseless child than Rice had for knocking out his fiancee. These 200-300 pound men are abusing their loved ones who have no defense. In my opinion, both certainly deserve more of a punishment for abusing another person than just a “suspension.”
I definitely agree that these people should be punished much more than they are. I think that all sports teams should have a zero tolerance policy for things like this. The teams are basically saying that football is more important than the well-being of people like the child and woman affected by the abuse of these two players. It should be a given that these players are kicked off of these teams. Like you said, football is quite important to American culture, but it should never be the case that abusers can be on a team just because they are valuable players. These teams really need to get their priorities straight.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you Becca. After watching that video, I cannot believe the NFL thought that a mere two game suspension was adequate. I really like your point about what this says about the NFL's tolerance towards domestic violence. They seem to be putting battery of women before children when in my opinion they should be equal if not children put before women. His fiancée is an adult and can leave any time she wants, but Peterson's son was stuck in an abusive household for years. This type of crime should have a zero tolerance policy. However, it seems that many other people share the same view as us if their reaction was enough to change the NFL's suspension time period. But it is unfortunate that it took millions of outraged Americans to set a proper punishment.
ReplyDelete