Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Goodell Has Got to Go
Townhall.com ^ | September 14, 2014 | Bruce Bialosky

Posted on 09/14/2014 9:18:05 AM PDT by Kaslin

The violent beating that was delivered by Ray Rice, a Baltimore Raven running back, against his girlfriend-turned-wife Janay, was the worst example of male behavior that our society has seen. Rice deserves to go to jail for the assault. This episode is a perfect example of corporate mismanagement by the leadership of the NFL. It is inexcusable. The Commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, needs to resign.

You all saw the video of Ray Rice dragging his then-girlfriend out of the elevator. You all figured out she did not just faint. So it did not take much to surmise what went on in the elevator. No one really needed to have the new video tape from inside the elevator to figure out it was basically a two-punch fight. Ray hit Janay; Janay hit the ground.

But now Commissioner Goodell has multiple versions of what happened. He tried -- tried so hard -- to get the video from the elevator and just could not. No one believes that. And now we have recorded proof the NFL received the video. Goodell met with Rice and Rice told him he punched her – no he slapped her. She’s my sister; she’s my daughter; she’s my sister; she’s my daughter. Goodell’s latest story is he did not pursue the situation out of respect for Janay. She said it was partially her fault she got a fist to the face. Is Goodell that clueless about domestic violence he can actually offer that as a defense?

Goodell knew what went on in that elevator and he willfully neglected the facts. He figured he’d suspend Rice a couple of games; who cares about one of my star players beating up a woman. It will blow over. Things are cool as long as my new Thursday night franchise brings in the ratings. But we do care. Either your league is a model to follow or it is a cravenness pit; decide which you want, commissioner. But as usual the cover-up is worse than the crime. Some two-bit celebrity website exposed you for what you are – a liar and an enabler of women beaters. But now, much like the beheadings of Foley and Sotloff, the world has changed because everyone saw the new video.

Mr. Goodell needs a clear picture. You see we are going to war again against a group of Islamic terrorists. They kidnap women, they rape women, and they force women into marriages. They treat women like chattel. What we do creates women doctors and lawyers and U.S. Senators. We honor women. Though we have not been perfect in the past in our treatment of women, nor are we now, we are constantly striving to improve the status of women and the opportunities that they have in society. That is what we stand for. When Goodell and the NFL condone the actions taken by Ray Rice by not swiftly and appropriately administering justice and then hiding their awareness of his misdeeds, we give credence to the barbarians who we need to eradicate. ISIS and Boko Haram are having a field day with that video thinking that although those Americans talk, look what they actually do to women when money is on the line. Goodell does not get that this is what separates our culture from these barbarians. His condoning of Rice’s actions brings us closer to them.

Now begins the real cover-up. The owners are circling the wagons trying to protect the Commissioner -- who makes them money -- not thinking of the disgrace he brings to the league. They have hired former FBI Director Robert Mueller to head an investigation. The investigation will be supervised by two owners who are scions of long-time owners: the Rooney and Mara families. They will concoct a report stating errors were made and things should change, but no one will be held responsible for the horrendous decisions made already. This is a classic Washington, DC-style whitewash that is only established to protect the guilty.

There is only one end to this situation that is just and right. Roger Goodell gets in front of a microphone and tells everyone he did wrong. It does not matter that Janay now says she loves Ray and that they should be left alone. They all do that. Once a woman is beaten you can pretty well count on the next one happening. Goodell should then resign and let someone come in who will take the stench from the league. Goodell would then have time to immerse himself in Law and Order SVU episodes and learn what beating up on women is all about.

There are more important things than ratings for NFL games. Goodell should have known that and he did not. He has to go.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: football; nfl; rogergoodell; sports
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-96 next last
To: Safetgiver

Worse even than Charles Manson’s treatment of Susan Tate.


61 posted on 09/14/2014 10:02:28 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: C. Edmund Wright

You can’t read, DUDE.


62 posted on 09/14/2014 10:03:13 AM PDT by blam (Jeff Sessions For President)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: Defiant

“The NFL should create a policy about when they will penalize a players’ criminal conduct and when they don’t, and then follow it, “

The big problem is that criminal conduct is hidden. Hidden by the players, coaches, administration and civil authorities.


63 posted on 09/14/2014 10:03:41 AM PDT by TexasGator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: C. Edmund Wright

“don’t give up your day job.”

Actually I gave it up three years ago.


64 posted on 09/14/2014 10:04:30 AM PDT by TexasGator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: GilesB

““... the worst example of male behavior that our society has seen.””


That sentence jumped out at me also.

Has the idiot author,Bruce Bialosky,been living in a cave for the last 50 years ??

Shame on Townhall.com for employing such a twerp.

.


65 posted on 09/14/2014 10:05:53 AM PDT by Mears
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: Defiant
The NFL is in this position because it is not a sports league anymore. It is now an entertainment company that has pandered to people who were never football fans in past, because it needs these people to just pay attention to a story (whether it be a football game or an off-the-field drama involving a player or coach) long enough to make them attractive to sponsors.

The NFL does not want to be seen as a sports league anymore. The television revenue they would generate if they catered to football fans is far less than what they generate if they are a bad soap opera.

66 posted on 09/14/2014 10:08:10 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: blam

you can’t write


67 posted on 09/14/2014 10:09:42 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (www.FireKarlRove.com NOW)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: C. Edmund Wright
Go away you disruptive dip-shit.

I'm done with you.

68 posted on 09/14/2014 10:11:05 AM PDT by blam (Jeff Sessions For President)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: blam

What? I guess I missed the part where only Tea Party haters think Kennedy was vile and there is a double standard - one for Kennedys and other dem elites and another for everybody else.


69 posted on 09/14/2014 10:18:01 AM PDT by GilesB
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: TexasGator
The big problem is that criminal conduct is hidden.

I don't understand your point. Criminal conduct that is not discovered is by definition unpenalizable. I think we are all talking about conduct or alleged conduct that other people actually know about. Criminal conduct that is "hidden" by coaches, administrators or civil authorities is itself criminal conduct. Criminal conduct by law is public, initiated when someone is arrested or a complaint is made. Pretty hard to hide that.

70 posted on 09/14/2014 10:19:02 AM PDT by Defiant (4 main US grps: conservatives, useless idiots (aka RINOs), marxists and useful idiots (aka liberals))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
What happened was dealt with in the criminal justice system. I'm still confused about why the NFL needs to apply penalties for something that happened off the field, and not during the season. Is there a morality clause in the league-approved standard contract?

Yes, the player's behavior was bad; atrocious, but outside the scope of his employment by a professional football team. Why is the league responsible for applying punishment the legal system didn't?

By the way, is this situation covered in the contract between the league and the player's union?

71 posted on 09/14/2014 10:20:33 AM PDT by Bernard (The Road To Hell is not paved with good results.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C. Edmund Wright
actually it’s called a “league” - look it up. You used that word in the same sentence as players union, which is a LABOR UNION.

That was my intention to show the similarity between the two groupings. Why isn't the head of the Player's union not be hounded for Rice's knockout of his wife? He has as much to do with it as the head of the NFL.

72 posted on 09/14/2014 10:20:49 AM PDT by oldbrowser (We have a rogue government in Washington)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: Defiant

“I don’t understand your point. Criminal conduct that is not discovered is by definition unpenalizable. “

It is discovered, just not prosecuted.

For example, MLB player caught doing 110 in 70 zone. Charges dismissed.


73 posted on 09/14/2014 10:21:24 AM PDT by TexasGator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: C. Edmund Wright

The NFL is soma for the voters. Government has learned well from the Romans: put on some games in the arena, put on a good show, mutilate or kill a few people every once in a while and the people will love you. In the meantime they’ll vote to have the government tax everyone to pay for a new stadium. Currently, I’m helping pay for a new stadium that replaced a stadium they blew up, and that stadium they blew up is still not paid for.

People will say that women fans will force some kind of culture change. They don’t care either as long as they win fantasy football this week. If their guys win, they can go home, beat their wives and kids, ‘roid up for the next game and they’ll be good with it.

I’ve been to a lot of peoples’ houses on Sundays and that picture of fat guys drinking beer watching ‘roided up black guys hit each other is pretty accurate. You’re right about the commercials though. Since there aren’t as many beer commercials anymore, they just mute them all and go get another beer.


74 posted on 09/14/2014 10:24:47 AM PDT by seowulf (Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum. Cogito.---Ambrose Bierce)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: DuncanWaring

Or Bill Clinton’s treatment of.... name one..or two.. or...three.


75 posted on 09/14/2014 10:25:07 AM PDT by Safetgiver ( Islam makes barbarism look genteel.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: C. Edmund Wright

“He has also presided over a league that is losing its traditional fan base and trading it in for this fantasy league stuff, which is not a sustainable trend. When people quit caring about teams, and the trend is in this direction, the NFL will have systemic problems.”

How much revenue does the NFL make in TV/viewing rights as opposed to merch and game tickets?

Freegards


76 posted on 09/14/2014 10:28:09 AM PDT by Ransomed
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Defiant

” Criminal conduct by law is public, initiated when someone is arrested or a complaint is made. Pretty hard to hide that. “

Ray Rice was indicted for aggravated assault but then charged with simple assault then went into a pretrial intervention program which will erase the record. The pretrial intervention program is for non-violent and victimless crimes.


77 posted on 09/14/2014 10:30:21 AM PDT by TexasGator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: Mears

....Breast Cancer awareness or something like that.

That’s all fine and good, but what about people that have other diseases? Some that are even more deadly. Brain tumors, pancreatic cancer, or liver Cancer? Why Breast Cancer? I guess it’s a woman thing. Notice they do nothing for the guys, regarding Prostate Cancer.

Why not Heart Disease, strokes, or Cirrhosis?(no one cares about people with Cirrhosis though....) With Lung Cancer and Cirrhosis, there’s a perception that those people DESERVE what they’ve gotten because they might have drank a beer or smoked at some point during their lives, so they are put on some kind of guilt trip as they are dying.(I know this, because I was in that position myself but recovered). Why does AIDS get so much attention while people with Lung Cancer or Cirrhosis are stigmatized, because they “brought it on themselves”? When someone has Lung Cancer, they have to feel obligated to talk about whether or not they ever smoked, or how much. Same with Cirrhosis and drinking. I’ve known people that have had lung cancer that never smoked in their life. I’ve known people with Cirrhosis that have never drank. When talking about it, all of them feel like they need to say “and I never did ‘X’”. As if they owe someone an explanation for their fatal illness. It’s pretty sad and screwed up.

People with AIDS just say they have it, and they get sympathy. No one even thinks about whether they screwed half the town or shared needles with someone, and for some reason, they apparently don’t feel the need to explain how their diseases ‘happened’ when talking to others about it....

Sorry about the rant....


78 posted on 09/14/2014 10:43:54 AM PDT by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: C. Edmund Wright

“The Dude Abides.....”

what...1 year suspension?
if he is any good, he will be back like Michael Vick.

Goodell? I could care either way but from what I see if he was knew about the situation, he was protecting the team owner’s financial interests....firing Goodell and you have another Donald Sterling situation...lets get whitey.

they need to hire a certain amount of dirtbags as field fodder.....so be it....this isn’t croquet or badminton.


79 posted on 09/14/2014 11:07:21 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: madprof98
The violent beating that was delivered by Ray Rice, a Baltimore Raven running back, against his girlfriend-turned-wife Janay, was the worst example of male behavior that our society has seen.

I stopped reading at that sentence.

Hey, Mr. Bruce Bialosky, I condemn what Rice did, but can your hyperbole.

Google 'tortured murder' or 'child abuse murder' for as many worse examples of male behavior as you want.

80 posted on 09/14/2014 12:09:08 PM PDT by Scoutmaster (I'd rather be at Philmont)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-96 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson