Op-Ed of Domestic Violence in the NFL

As a society, I think most of us have reached a consensus that any abuse is a bad thing. But recently, on every news station, pop-culture of just local news, we hear about this Ray Rice scandal. Some of us heard about this a couple months ago. I personally saw a video showing Ray Rice dragging out his girlfriend out of an elevator, and so did the NFL. Just a few weeks ago though, a video was released showing exactly what happened inside the elevator. It showed Ray Rice actually punching his girlfriend in her face, hard enough for her to collapse. Only this forced the NFL to give Ray Rice a harsher punishment.

But why now? Why do we have to see the video of her getting punched in the face to pursue a bigger consequence? We all knew what happened inside that elevator.

The way the NFL is dealing with this disgusts me. Rice only received a couple games suspension initially, and now that the video is released, he is suspended indefinitely. It’s just a slap on the wrist for these guys.

If this video was released before Ray Rice was involved with the NFL, do you think he would be in the NFL today? No. No franchise with so many followers would want to be known as accepting of someone who hits their significant other. Especially in public!

So why is now any different? Why should Ray Rice, or any other player, be allowed to play with the best? And be looked up to as role models. I strongly think they shouldn’t. If these men have the drive and the excellence to make it to the NFL, I think they should be held to higher standards. With higher standards comes higher responsibilities, and hefty consequences.

Or should we look to give the bigger punishments to the men that let this slide. Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, is really the man in charge of dealing with this huge scandal. Goodell claims that the organization had no idea that a video from inside the elevator existed. Basically, he is saying that I, just a sixteen year old girl, understood what had happened in that elevator before a whole work force saw it.. One girl beats a hundreds of workers? What are the odds. I really think it is impossible that I was able to find this before the NFL.

Just to be clear, Rice isn’t the only man in the NFL that has been known for domestic

violence. But should the NFL start with him in, what should be, stricter violence rules? Yes. I do feel guilty about stripping someone of their lifelong dreams, but in no way do I think it is acceptable to hit someone you love. We should know that by now. It should be a given to never lay a hurtful hand on the people you love.

I think it starts with Ray Rice. With him, it will show to us as a nation that this will not be tolerated anymore. It will show the little boys playing football, dreaming of scoring that touchdown in a stadium, that when they get there, they are held to a higher standard. And this standard isn’t flexible. You need to be someone you would want your children and grandchildren look up to.