NFL is better late than never on getting serious about domestic violence

Darin Gantt, Pro Football Talk:

According to Mark Maske of the Washington Post, the NFL is considering stiffer penalties in the future for domestic violence cases.

The report said potential punishment would be four to six games for a first offense, and a possible one-year ban for a second offense. Of course, this comes after the league was almost unanimously pilloried for its two-game suspension (plus a fine of a week’s worth of his much-lower 2013 salary) of Ravens running back Ray Rice for knocking his wife unconscious.

NFL senior vice president of labor policy, Adolpho Birch strongly disagreed that the league's two-game suspension of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for his domestic violence arrest was too light.

"The discipline that was taken by the NFL is the only discipline that occurred, with respect to Mr. Rice, in this case," Birch said. "I think that, were he not an NFL player, I don't know that he would be able to receive any punishment from any other source."

Can you say “empty suit”?

"We just can't make up the discipline," Goodell said. "It has to be consistent with other cases. And it was in this matter."

In the movie, The Verdict, Attorney Frank Galvin (Paul Newman) sums up his case for the jury with the following statement: “Not some book. Not the lawyers. Not the marble statues. Not the trappings of the court. A desire to be just”.

According to Forbes.com, on Goodell, “It’s good to be king. Roger controls more eyeballs than any other sport, and he does a great job of rationing and promoting his content”.

The word is that the current NFL guidelines tied the hands of NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell. Great leaders untie them, and “do the right thing”.

Paul Murphy is a freelance writer from New Hampshire.

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