NFL too lenient with Rice; looks the other way on abuse
The tap on the wrist of a two-game unpaid suspension for Baltimore Ravens running back and alleged domestic violence perpetrator Ray Rice demonstrates that neither the league nor society take violence against women seriously, at least not when the criminal perpetrating it is an exalted and privileged professional athlete.
According to Rice’s coach, this incident was a mere “mistake.” Of course! We cannot characterize it as a fatal character flaw, for if we did, there would be serious questions posed about whether someone who commits such a cowardly act would be fit to return to their position as an admired and rich member of a football team.
The Ray Rice problem is not something that can be solved through counseling or anger-management classes, and it would be surprising if he emerges as one who holds women in high regard.
If there is anything to be said in Rice’s defense, and there is not much, it is that he plays a sport whose focus is violence and he lives in society in which satellite radio and many other “entertainment” outlets foment contempt and disrespect for women, police officers, and others. None of this, though, serves to excuse what he did or to or mitigate its seriousness.
Rice’s now-wife is not entirely a sympathetic figure, either, as she married the man who assaulted her and cohabitates with him. Most of us married men know that if we beat our wife unconscious, it would be the first and last time that we did it, and that we would answer to a court for our actions.
The matter has become a debacle and a disgrace thanks to the National Football League and others who are willing to look the other way when a professional athlete acts outrageously.
Oren Spiegler is a resident of Upper St. Clair.