The Student News Site of Neshaminy High School

The Playwickian

The Student News Site of Neshaminy High School

The Playwickian

The Student News Site of Neshaminy High School

The Playwickian

NFL overlooks players’ domestic violence

By Matt Cruz
Staff Writer

The past month has been a black eye for the NFL. Vikings running back, Adrian Peterson, one of the leagues premier players, is currently on the NFL’s exempt list until the conclusion of the trial regarding the “discipline” of his 4-year-old. Peterson was indicted on Sept. 12 for the beating of his son. Peterson’s court date in Montgomery County is scheduled for Oct. 8.

Former Steelers and current Cardinals running back, Jonathan Dwyer was indicted as recently as Sept. 29. Police say Dwyer broke his wife’s nose with a vicious head-butt during a July 21 argument and engaged in a dispute the following day in which he punched his wife and threw a shoe at his then-17-month-old son, who wasn’t injured.

These are just two examples that contribute to the madhouse that has been the NFL in the past few months.

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The issue that has been the headliner is the Ray Rice situation and the NFL’s complete and total mishandling of the situation.

Back in Feb., Rice had a dispute with his then fiancé in a Revel Casino in Atlantic City. They got into a physical confrontation and Rice ended up punching his fiancé in the face in a Revel elevator. He then dragged her out, barley conscious.

A video was released soon after showing the gruesome reality of what had taken place.

A few weeks later, with Rice already having his press conference, being released from the Ravens and having entered couples counseling, the NFL had to make a decision on what to do.

NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell made a decision late July 24. Rice had received a 2 game suspension from the league. That’s it. A measly 2 game suspension.

Women’s rights organizations, analysts, and the press (including this writer) were appalled. The NFL dropped the ball on this one but that’s not even the worst part of the situation.

A few weeks ago, as the situation was starting to calm down, TMZ released a full video showing exactly what happened in the elevator. The NFL said it did not see the video from the elevator until it was released by TMZ. The league said it requested all information from the incident from police, but the elevator video was “not made available to us,” according to league sources.

Goodell continued denying the allegations saying they never had knowledge of the video.
On Sept. 10, according to an unknown source from the Associated Press said that the NFL was sent the elevator video in April. The source said he had a 12-second voice mail from an NFL office number confirming the video arrived. The NFL quickly refuted the report and said it had “no knowledge” of ever receiving the video.

Obviously this has caused a stir around the league and the media as well.

“Goodell has clearly lost his way and the players and public no longer have any confidence in him,” said Sports Illustrated’s executive editor of SI.com, BJ Schecter. “His press conference was a debacle and this period will forever stain his legacy.”

As new developments will continue to be unearthed in this case, one thing is for certain; domestic violence has become a real issue and has no place in society let alone professional sports.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ray-rice-appeal-raises-question-of-whether-roger-goodell-will-testify/

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/10/after_ray_rice_video_lawmakers_propose_nj_domestic_violence_courts.html

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NFL overlooks players’ domestic violence