Today I decided that I really need to blog. I need to say
my piece concerning Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens. In February over
Valentines weekend he used his then girlfriend as a punching bag. I guess I
need to get my say out now because of the release of the video. This video is
damning indeed. You see the violence at its rawest form. I need to address it
because the NFL and the Ravens have decided to release him from the team.
I have so many questions and thoughts that I need to let
it go. Cue the upsweep of music….. Okay, now just what the hell did the NFL and
the Ravens think abuse looked like? Did they think that it was sunshine and roses?
Did they picture children playing with puppies and kittens? No, I don’t think
they did. I think what they saw was the bottom line. The almighty dollar sign.
Who cares that someone was hurt? Be it a man, woman or child.
I truly believe that they thought we as a group wouldn’t
care. I don’t think that they gave us enough credit. I believe that they
thought that the glory of all that football is we would allow them to brush it
under the rug. That we would be hypnotized by the fact that it was football
season again. I think that maybe it might have worked. But, as these things
happen the video was released. In all its ugliness it was out there for us to
see.
Now, I have to ask this, why did the police never charge
him? Why did the police/prosecutor interview her with Ray there? Shouldn’t
abuse victims be interviewed alone? I may not be lawyer or even educated in law
but common sense tells me that you separate them. I cannot believe this. I
think that if I were an abuse victim I might be afraid to talk about it in
front of said abuser. Fear is a real thing. I had a friend that was abused by
her long term boyfriend and then husband. I would ask her why she let him
continue to beat her. Her answer was always that he regretted it and that he
would never do it again.
Now I was never happy with that statement because I knew
with all my heart that I would beat the out of any person that did that to me.
I still believe that is true but now I am not so quick to judge her or anyone
else for that matter. How can I? I have no idea what it is like to be in that
position. As a part of our human nature we like to believe the best of the
people we love.
Then the NFL….Oh boy my questions abound here. First they
suspend him for two games. Oh my you naughty boy! Could they spare the days? I
think that they thought we could just let it go with that. After all boys will
be boys. How many times did I hear that one growing up? Way too many. My dad
believed too many archaic things. My grandpa on the other hand was a women’s
libber. He was born in 1908 and he believed that women didn’t have equal rights
and he fought until his dying days to bring change. Yes, he was my role model
for the type of man I might want to marry. I think I did well.
The public outcry of the two game suspension of Ray Rice
forced the NFL to rethink their position. Now it is a six game suspension for
the first offense and then a lifetime ban. Or that’s what it was until the
video. Suddenly the NFL and the Baltimore Ravens changed their collective
minds. Mr. Rice was released from football. The NFL has said that no teams may
hire him. He is persona no grata to the NFL and to his team. The same team and
NFL had basically treated this as a boys will be boy’s situation.
Now I have to ask this. Did the NFL just put a big target
on Mrs. Rice? Did this open it up to being her fault that his career is either
over or put on hold? I have listened to the people on TV and I have read all of
the social media firestorm. When I watched the news conference that John
Harbaugh did I just got a yada yada feeling from it. I felt that he was
uncomfortable with the whole issue. I feel that he should be. We all should be.
Now, in San Francisco Jim Harbaugh and the 49ers face a
very similar situation with Ray McDonald. Mr. McDonald was arrested for beating
up his pregnant fiancé. It was over Labor Day weekend. I am sensing a theme
here. This time the second time that the police have shown up at the McDonald
household. They aren’t saying why they were called the first time. Mr. McDonald
played last weekend for the 49er’s and will probably continue to. After all
there were only witnesses not video.
We wait and see what happens with this. I wait and see
what happens here. Has this marred how I feel about a sport I was raised to
love? Yes, unfortunately it has. I still have college ball though and I will
continue to watch it. Maybe if the NFL steps up to the bat here they have lost
me. This makes me both angry and sad.
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