The Student Newspaper of Saint Peter's Prep

The Petroc

The Student Newspaper of Saint Peter's Prep

The Petroc

The Student Newspaper of Saint Peter's Prep

The Petroc

A Call for Change

One of the most influential organizations in the world  may have it’s reputation permanently scarred. The National Football League, colloquially known as the NFL, has come into public focus for all the wrong reasons with their recent handling of the Ray Rice domestic violence incident among others. Men powered to stardom by their abilities on the field have continually let down their teams, family members, and fans by their actions off the field. What comes into scrutiny is not only holding the players accountable for the actions, but by the way that their punishments have been carried out by the league that is supposed to judge with an iron fist of morality.

On February 15th, Ray Rice was arrested for what was called a simple assault on his then fiance. The assault claimed that both parties, both Ray Rice and his current wife, had struck each other. Four days later TMZ released a video of the former Baltimore Ravens running back dragging his wife, Janay Palmer, unconscious out of the elevator that they were riding . About a month later on March 27th, Rice was indicted by a grand jury on third-degree aggravated assault charges.Interestingly enough, Rice and Palmer got married the next day moving their wedding from a future summer date. This was speculated as a move that would allow Palmer to claim spousal privilege, which would not force her to testify in court against Rice. On May 1st Rice pled not guilty to the charges of third-degree assault. Three weeks later, the New Rochelle, New York native was accepted into a pre-trial program that helped him avoid prosecution. After a meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Rice was given a two-game suspension. Then over a month later the NFL released new, far stricter policies on its domestic violence punishments. This called into question the league’s judgement on the Ray Rice decision in general. How could a man be given a two game suspension for an offense that was considered a minimal six game suspension only a month later? What made things worse is that on September 8th TMZ released video from inside the elevator in which Rice was shown punching Palmer in the face and knocking her unconscious. The NFL reacted quickly responded to this video release suspending Rice indefinitely.

The last, and probably the most important, part of the story came out on September 10th. It was reported that the NFL had already received the footage of Ray Rice knocking Janay Palmer unconscious in the elevator. With this in mind, questions started flying around. How could the NFL only suspend Rice for two games knowing what he had done in that elevator? Why was Rice given an opportunity to escape jail time after viewing this video? This appears to be a terrible reflection on the NFL. A multibillion dollar organization has a far greater responsibility in handling player cases and dealing proper  punishment. The NFL can not be expected to control player all behavior, but there are steps it could take to prevent this kind of behavior in the future.

The NFL should attempt to use education to fix player behavior. Many of these players go through life being told that they are heroes and are looked up to by so many people. This can cause the players to think they have this immortal quality that allows people to cover for them regardless of what they do. Player rule education can help many players come back down to reality. It’s impossible to say if it is the definitive way to spark change in the National Football League, but one thing is for sure, as the Ray Rice incident highlights, there at least has to be some attempt for change.