Posted on 09/10/2014 4:40:58 AM PDT by LeoMcNeil
Ray Rice has been fired from the Baltimore Ravens and suspended indefinitely by the NFL. Why? That’s the million dollar question at this point. It seems to be more about political correctness and caving to political lobby’s than anything else. We’ve known for months that Rice beat up his then fiancee and knocked her unconscious. This fact resulted in a minor criminal case and a two game suspension from the NFL. Earlier this week gossip site TMZ got hold of the closed circuit video of the attack and now ESPN’s hoard of commentators is completely outraged, Rice has been fired and suspended.
There is no doubt that what he did was evil. It’s an outrage whenever a man hits a woman. Having said that though, we learned absolutely nothing new about this incident this week. Everyone knew he popped his fiancee one and knocked her out. The video doesn’t change that, it only confirms what we imagine likely happened. Honestly, did you imagine the attack would be less gruesome than the video depicts? All the outrage from the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL is absurd, they had a pretty good idea what it would take for one of their players to knock a woman out cold.
There is another side to this story. This woman married Ray Rice after the incident. Why should the public, sports media, Baltimore Ravens and NFL be more outraged about the attack than she is? This is an important point. Rice’s fiancee, who he beat up into an unconscious state married him after the incident. If she was truly afraid of Rice, she had every opportunity to get away. After domestic violence incidents the courts always issue a protective order forbidding contact with the victim. This was a public incident, she could have easily escaped. Instead not only did she choose to marry Ray Rice, she lobbied NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for a lenient punishment. How exactly does video of the incident change her actions?
The answer of course is that ESPN is fueling the “I’m more outraged than you are” environment that has come to dominate sports commentary these days. Sports used to represent an escape from politics and the drudgery of daily life. The leftists at ESPN have turned it into another vehicle to push what one Sportscenter talking head last night called “social consciousness.” Thus there is a racial element to almost every interaction between races on ESPN, feminism is pushed hard, homosexuals are exulted and everyone tries to be the most outraged.
Make no mistake, what Ray Rice did was absolutely evil. The issue here isn’t so much what Ray Rice did but the reaction of the sports media and NFL. Everything we knew about the incident was known shortly after it happened. There is nothing in the recently leaked video that’s particularly shocking in light of what we already knew. The reaction by the sports media, Baltimore Ravens and NFL is over the top and so full of phony outrage. We learned absolutely nothing new. At the end of the day, if the woman who got beat up isn’t bothered enough to not marry Ray Rice, why should any of us care about what happened? If she’s forgiven him, why shouldn’t we accept that and move on video or no video? We’ve reached the point in society where thinking is no longer required. Feeling and emotional reactions are all that count. We’ve seen that on full display this week.
And Rice was just dragging her drunk ass around.
The video shows him spitting in her face twice, once by the column outside the elevator just prior to her weak slap at him and then again in the elevator prior to her lunging at him and getting cold-cocked.
It might just give pause to all those who are "through with pro football forever"....who don't realize they're playing the leftists' game and handing them the game ball before leaving the field.
Leni
What Rice did was an typically evil, visceral yet unjustifiable, sin/crime that was addressed, however inadequately, by the justice system of New Jersey (based in part, on the wishes of the victim). When the press/public demands that his non-judicial employer punish him, that is a kind of lynching or collective sacrifice to political correctness. The Ravens/NFL fanned the flames by capitulating and thus amputating Rice from itself based ironically, on another, far more massive, visceral reaction.
But this statement needs to be contradicted: ""no man ever punches a woman, ever."
There are times when a man definitely should punch a woman.
Agreed, when circumstances require it.
Yes, it was. It was just a futile, sophomoric attempt to one-up or otherwise prove somebody wrong for no other reason than to be annoying. You know what the context of the statement was and you chose to play your childish game.
I only watch ESPN now during actual live sporting events and not their news shows or commentary shows. The reason is that it seems they care more about social commentary then the actual results and dynamics of the sports itself. It is nothing but progressive, liberal sounding rhetoric that is basically political correctness and not sports itself.
The sports media in general seems to be dictating what is acceptable and not acceptable especially in context with politically correct ideals and what the punishment should be. Until the sports organizations and management start ignoring or rebuking the sports media in their attempts to force political correctness then it is only going to get worse. Sports will no longer mainly be about on the field play but an avenue to promote social commentary.
I feel that this was a tragic incident but there is no need for it to be talked about ad nauseam at the expense of the actual sport itself. What happened to the days when analysts actually talked mostly about the on the field play?
There is no excuse at all for slugging women
...minus her charging with a weapon of some sort, of course you’re right...self defense being a separate issue...
I’m now waiting for the ultra-liberal response, saying that Ray is a victim of racism against Ray’s culture.
Once you see something happen it’s worse than what you know happened but didn’t see. Just look at the whole ISIS thing, which generates more outrage: the unseen knowledge they’re killing thousands of people, or the seen beheadings of 2 people? We know which one should, but the visceral sight always hits harder than the unseen information. We’re a visual species, we entreat each other to “look at what happened”. Before the inside the elevator video got released we knew what happened, but we hadn’t seen it, now we’ve seen it.
As for the idea that his wife seems to have forgiven him that’s no reason for us not to be outraged. Anyone that knows anything about domestic violence knows the abused tend to forgive the abuser for years and years before they finally realize (if they ever do) they don’t have to live like that. Just because she hasn’t hit the point of realization yet is no reason for us not to decide Rice is just not the kind of person we want entertaining us.
This isn’t about the left or the right. This is about actually seeing what happened, and understanding that the victim is not in a psychological place to draw a line, but we are.
Agree completely with your POV, Savage Beast; I can think of any number of situations where ‘violence against women’ would be fully justified; don’t get this ‘you don’t hit a woman, ever’ idea; I think most guys buy into it either to look compassionate or to appeal to the ladies...it’s b.s., women are every bit as cruel and manipulative as men, and deserve the same beatdown for their bad behavior. And that is NOT to say that Ray Rice was in any way justified in what he did. Flame away freepers, I can take it!
I don’t drink, so I need not wait for the beer to wear off. My wife actually said the same thing that I said, if Mrs. Rice isn’t concerned why should we be? She’s making the choice to not only stay with Rice, she married him after the incident. If she’s forgiven him I really see no reason why the rest of us shouldn’t.
The fact that people need to see something evil before comprehending it says a lot about the lack of thinking skills in our nation. (thanks government schools!) It is quite true that it took the beheading of two people on video for many people to recognize the evil of ISIS. This despite reports of thousands of dead and dreadful attacks on Christians, especially Christian girls. It’s pathetic that society needs visual evidence of evil in order to comprehend it.
No, it says something about how the human brain works. There’s a reason we have so many tired old cliches that revolve around putting things in front of our eyes (see is believing, the show me state, a picture is worth a thousand words, etc etc), because our brain pays the most attention to the input from our eyes. It’s why we make visual models for things. It’s why so many languages have involved pictographs. It’s why people learn where buttons are but not hotkeys. We can conceptualize a lot of stuff, but nothing impacts the brain like stuff that goes through the visual cortex, in fact one of our primary forms of conceptualization is visualization. Railing against us for that is like railing against us for being bipedal, it’s the nature of what a human being is, and you have the exact same “problem”.
Two points here. One is absolutely wonderful. The outrage that shows up only when it profits YOU. The sports bigwigs and talking heads who don’t give a hoot until they can turn the situations round and APPEAR BETTER THEMSELVES. The contest on appearing more outraged than the next guy. Political correctness ruling over us above all else.
I agree, and well written.
However, the other point you are making, that this woman married him anyway, I can’t agree with. There is something wrong with us women when some of us stay with abusers. Just because she “forgave” him, even if it was for the money, doesn’t make it right what he did, surely more than just once, and what he will do to her again.
No, women (spouses - even men) don’t deserve to be beaten, even if they were beaten before. Even if in their subculture it is seen as normal. Even if they make stupid decisions. EVEN IF THEY CHEAT ON THE GUY. They deserve to be divorced or left High and dry for that, and women are not better than men and don’t deserve special treatment. But in general they are weaker than men, especially pro football players. Beating the weaker being is always wrong (small time spanking or hand slapping a child from 3-6 excepted). So the outrage should stay regardless of her going back to her abuser. Not that there is much we can do about it until she wises up.
I think someone else said it best, that Vince Lombardi would never have tolerated this behavior, no matter what his talent. I don't care how the Rices handle their marriage. I hope they get help for the emotional problems they both have. But once the public has seen the sickening violence what he is capable of, he has no place on the Ravens.
Do you always jump to futile, sophomoric, childish conclusions?
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