Don't let the NFL dream the Ray Rice situation is over
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| I don't know what to do with my hands |
But what I'm asking you, the reader, is to not let the horrible things that Adrian Peterson is accused of doing let you forget about how the NFL handled the Ray Rice situation.
'Handled' is probably not the right word. Because 'handled' would seem to insinuate that at some point in the past 7 months Roger Goodell and the NFL league office didn't display an astounding amount of incompetence. Even 'astounding amount of incompetence' is probably being nice; it wasn't like they had a single mistake, or even a series of misfires. It was a colossal failure at each and every single turn. Given every reason to be proactive in this situation, the NFL chose to be slowly and quite poorly reactive.
I'm sure you don't need me to recap the series of events, but I'm going to anyways.
In FEBRUARY, TMZ released a video which showed Ray Rice dragging the lifeless body of his then-fiancee out of an Atlantic City elevator. At no point after did Ray Rice nor his now wife deny that there was a physical altercation between the two that led to her being knocked unconscious.
With this video in hand, the one they're not denying they received, and with literally months to consider it, Roger Goodell and the NFL league office decided to suspend Ray Rice for two weeks. Two weeks. Or half the amount of time a player would be suspended for taking a banned substance (ie: adderall, weed), an 1/8th of the time he suspended Sean Payton for something he never ended up being able to prove, and 3 games less than what Terrell Pryor was given just a year previously after he signed a bunch of Ohio State merchandise for a tattoo parlor while he was in college. Read that last part again.
Goodell would later admit that his punishment was a mistake. Explaining that he would need some kind of set-in-stone, benchmarking system to help him be able to determine that knocking your wife out in a public elevator was a bad thing to do.
And of course then TMZ leaked the second video. The one that confirmed what the NFL should've known in the first place. Ray Rice and his now-wife Janay had some kind of verbal altercation that ended up with Ray knocking her out. Anyone who was holding out hope that maybe Janay Rice was just in a deep sleep was heavily disappointed.
He entered the elevator like Freddy Krueger, towered over her to intimidate her, shoved her, then knocked her out with a haymaker that resulted in her head violently hitting the public elevator's railing. He hovered over her body until the door opened, and then dragged her out, not once showing even a hint of remorse.
The NFL denied they had ever seen the tape. This, despite the fact that virtually every single one of the league's top reporters reported IN JULY that they had a second tape, including one report that described what occurred in the tape verbatim. Shortly after, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS not only reported that the NFL had been delivered the second tape (the one that confirmed what they should've already known from the original) but had heard a voicemail recording of a representative of the NFL confirming that they had not only seen the tape but reviewed it. And the NFL still denied they received the tape.
Rice also has now come out to say that when he and his wife met with Rooger Goodell, he told the commissioner exactly what had happened. Guess what? The NFL denied that happened as well.
Oh, but the NFL is running an 'independent' investigation on the matter. The investigation will be handled by the law firm that negotiated the NFL's deal with DirecTV. It will be overseen by the league's two oldest owners, Art Rooney and John Mara. Surely, there's no conflict of interest there.
In itself, that's crazy, right? But take a step back and consider this. Doing the right thing would've made Roger Goodell a hero. The NBA showed him the blue print; without a formal 'precedent' put in place, Adam Silver decided to take drastic action and expelled an owner after he had said some truly racist things. AND THE WORLD WANTED TO THROW THE GUY A PARADE, just because he decided to do the right thing.
Given a similar opportunity, rather than deciding to do what's right, and in the process be labeled a hero, Roger Goodell risks his 44 million dollar a year job to protect... a man who sucker punched his fiancee in a public elevator. The league office not only provides a shameful punishment, they decide to turn a blind eye to a second, more graphic video that they absolutely had for months. It is an atomic bomb filled by an unfathomable amount of arrogance and incompetence. Given every reason, and every opportunity to do the right thing, the NFL made a conscious decision to do the wrong thing.
People need to be held responsible. We can't lose focus of that. Shine light on the horrific things Adrian Peterson in all likelihood did to at least one of his children, but keep heat on NFL league for the inexcusable things they've done when it comes to the Ray Rice situation. The NFL should not be responsible for the actions of it's employees, but they should be held responsible for the reaction to incidents involving them.
And it has to start with Roger Goodell. He has to go. He just does. He's paid 44 million dollars a year to put on a nice suit and make sure the wheel keeps turning, and instead, he's chosen to put on a nice suit and to protect a man who knocked his wife unconscious in a public elevator.
I won't pretend to think that people will stop watching football. But there is a call to action that does make a great deal of sense; show tangible proof that the NFL's response to the Ray Rice situation is negatively impacting their bottom line. Or, in other words, go after their sponsors.
That's something a lot of folks have suggested. Avoiding all of the NFL's sponsors is difficult, though; there's a lot of them, and efforts divided probably wouldn't display conclusive enough of data. Choosing one, on the other hand, could net in a positive.
Recently, Anheuser Busch put out a 'strong statement' about their dissatisfaction with the NFL's response to a series of terrible domestic violence cases. Proving themselves to be, at the very least, PR conscious enough to want to distance themselves from this disaster. In face of pressure from one of their corporate sponsors, the NFL in turn has reacted; banning Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy from their team's facilities.
So, if you're looking for an easy way to let the NFL know you're angry, here's one; Don't drink Budweiser. In fact, don't drink any Anheuser Busch products. A list can be found here, but they include all Budweiser drinks, Michelob, Busch, Rolling Rock, Landshark, Shocktop, Redhook and O'Doul's. If you're going out to the liquor store or a bar, buy something else. Buy Coors! Buy Sam Adams! Yuengling! Sierra Nevada! Heck, buy 4 Loko. There's a ton of beers out there, guys!
Buy anything but Anheuser Busch until the NFL fires Roger Goodell. Don't allow them to let you forget the horrifying level of incompetence, arrogance, and overall repulsiveness they've displayed in the past few months. Because, in the words of Roger Goodell himself, 'Ignorance is not an excuse.'
