Not really. It’s been known around sports for quite a while that there was a very quiet domestic violence problem, not just for the NFL but the whole industry. Athletes don’t hear a lot of no, and get a bit bristly when they do, especially after a bad day at the “office”. It usually comes out in divorces, and the press rarely if ever bothers to pick. Guy on the radio this morning said there’s 21 NFL teams that have at least one player with a domestic violence charge on his record. Also plenty of NBA teams, NHL teams, and even MLB teams.
By being the first league to have this policy in place the NFL is calling it by name. They really shouldn’t punish the first sports commissioner in America to do that. Yeah it would be nice that he got there without the fits and starts, but he got to the place some people have been complaining sport needs to get to for at least a decade. The people who have been pinging on this issue need to not lose the forest through the trees.
Good response, thanks.
I’m just tired of the whole media attitude that pro athletes can do no wrong, starting with the OJ apologists who still exist and still have sportscasting jobs. I even heard one on the radio say, “C’mon man, he couldn’t have done it — he’s The Juice!”
The same goes for Sandusky and Penn State — what a can of worms that nearly opened (and I guarantee you Paterno was more involved than anyone wants to admit). But officially we’re supposed to believe that a bunch of wealthy old men had no particular reason to be hanging around with muscular college athletes and tasty little boys, and of course that’s not a problem throughout HS and college sports whenever you hear about some boy’s coach who turned out to be a pedo.
That’s where this stuff leads if it’s swept under the carpet, and if Goodell has been complicit in covering up a domestic violence problem or other thug behavior, then he should pay the price so they can clean up the league.