Benedict, Jeff. "The NFL's Willful Ignorance." Los Angeles Times, 14 Sep, 2014, pp. A.21. SIRS Issues Researcher, Accessed 3 May 2018.
Jeff Benedict’s article “The NFL’s Willful Ignorance” discusses previous incidents with
domestic violence on the NFL pro teams and what they are doing about it. fix One example form
Benedict’s article is the Ray Rice case in 2014. The NFL kicked him off the Baltimore Ravens
team and gave him an indefinite suspension for knocking out his fiancee in a hotel elevator in
Atlanta (Benedict). Although an indefinite suspension may sound like an appropriate
punishment, an indefinite ban is not the same as a lifetime ban. Rice was only suspended for
two games, while another player was suspended for four games because he had drugs.
***Special line*** Benedict includes more evidence of players getting by with domestic assault.
One example is a top player on the Miami Dolphins team choked and beat his pregnant fiancee in the shower twice and they did not sanction him. Another example is the player for the Atlanta
Falcons that tore his 3-week-old child from
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his girlfriend’s arms before beating her while threatening to kill her. The NFL cut him from the Falcons but, was picked up by another team. (cite?) This proves that the NFL does not seriously discipline players for their harmful actions. “The NFL’s Willful ignorance” made me realize how different the punishment is for something a celebrity does rather than the common person. By reading this article I was informed about what is going on behind the scenes of their opinion of “justice”. I was very shocked with the abundant amount of victims over the past decade. I was pleased to see that the Atlanta Falcons player was removed from the team because of his actions, but my satisfaction fell short because he got picked up by another team even after all the things he did to his girlfriend. Benedict writes that the NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said, “We are not the criminal justice system. … A player has rights too.” Yes, I agree a player has rights but, they should be the same as everyone else. If a player sexually assaults his girlfriend or threatens to kill her that player should not be able to just jump back into the next game without sanction. Another thing to keep in mind is how our youth look up to NFL players. Some of the children idolize these players for their amazing performance, but what they do not see is how some of the players treat their loved ones. These men have the power to change the culture (Benedict). I believe that they use their power in the right way, they could spread awareness and educate more about domestic violence. Goodale, Gloria. "Ray Rice Suspension: Is NFL Really Serious about Domestic Violence?." Christian Science Monitor, 08 Sept. 2014. EBSCOhost, Accessed 3 May 2018. Gloria Goodale’s article "Ray Rice Suspension: Is NFL Really Serious about Domestic Violence?" acknowledges that the NFL is mishandling punishment for domestic violence and explains the effect it has on women. Goodale’s article mentions ‘The NFL needs to send a clear message on domestic violence or suffer the consequences.’ Since recent reports on domestic violence in the NFL typically go looked over or not justified, the NFL commissioner, Goodell made a new policy. It states that any player that has a first-time violation involved with domestic violence or sexual assault has an automatic six-game suspension (Goodale). Another portion of the article explains how women feel. The Florida defense attorney says, “Women will ask themselves, what chance do I have if it’s just my word against his?” (Goodale). This is why most situations go unreported. The article goes on to describe how the player is role models to our youth and how they are influencing them. My opinion of "Ray Rice Suspension: Is NFL Really Serious about Domestic Violence?" is that it brings other aspects of domestic violence and sheds some light on the new policy recently put in place. It describes how women feel while also capturing how it affects regular people like a Florida defense attorney. This article made me realize that these topics affect everyone, not just the players or the victims. Once the media delivers the news about the NFL and domestic violence, it becomes a national headline which makes everyone pick a side of who is right and who is wrong. Rick Burton the professor of sports management says, ‘This may be great for the NFL to address the important issue, but the league does not want to be associated with their game.’ (Goodale) My opinion on this statement is if the NFL does not want people to associate domestic violence with their game, then spend a little time and money on educating the players about the effects of what they are doing and the consequences. Macur, Juliet. "On Domestic Violence, N.F.L. Still Sees No Evil." New York Times, 22 Oct. 2016, p. D1(L). Opposing Viewpoints In Context, Accessed 2 May 2018. Juliet Macur’s article, "On Domestic Violence, N.F.L. Still Sees No Evil." dives into other reasons why domestic violence occurs in NFL and how the NFL handled the investigations. One reason why domestic violence is happening on the NFL teams is that the article mentions that fans blame the presidential election. “Some fans … tune it to a political race in which sexual assaults and treatment of women have been front a center thanks to Donald J Trump.” From there the article turns its’ point of view to how the NFL investigate the crimes that their players commit. Macur writes that police and court records show that Josh Brown was arrested in 2015 because he assaulted his wife at least a dozen times and once while she was pregnant. Even though the NFL investigated for ten months, Brown was only suspended one game (Macur). To follow up on that, the sheriff on Brown’s case said: “The NFL never officially asked for documents” (Macur). On the bright side, fans of all sports are speaking out about the injustice. #NotAFan is a service campaign that top athletes and coaches talk about how they are against domestic violence (Macur). The impact of "On Domestic Violence, N.F.L.
Still Sees No Evil." was the biggest of the three articles. This is because, this articles explores the truth about how serious the NFL is about domestic violence, which is not pretty. The fact that the NFL only suspended Josh Brown for one game makes me wonder what the NFL’s proitories are, obviously not justice. I am also astonished that the NFL sent two people they considered at random to go ask for documents (Macur). Does this show that the NFL is so lazy during the investigation that they do not even care about the victim? Although the league made a new policy and reopened brown’s case, I do not believe it is bulletproof. Many other players are getting an advantage when it comes to the criminal justice system. Hopefully, by spreading the word, there will be less and fewer victims when it comes to domestic violence, especially in the
NFL.
Ray Rice a former NFL running back who played for the Baltimore Ravens was caught brutally smacking his fiancee over, leaving her blacked out on the floor of a casino elevator taking place in Atlantic City. The footage leaked out world wide and the public created huge controversy over the coverage that continuously played a numerous of times on major news networks. Rice who was cut from the Ravens and suspended from the NFL after the release of the show down is now an unsigned free agent, searching for hope. Through shocking evidence and a glimpse into a professional football players life, I aim to examine how media created an entertainment brand out of the countless amount of times the video was aired, how the NFL handled the scandal, and how Rice strives to regain his identity.
sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. The case against him was largely
Ethical Rules on Sport’s Justice. Dallas: East Dallas Times, page 21. 2008. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. Print: Harry, Patrick Hayes.
Overcoming the past and extreme obstacles is nothing new to Ray Lewis. His past is filled with dark secrets that not just anyone could forget; therefore, he is my idol. Lewis’s legacy will be tainted by the events of January 31, 2000, for some. Early that morning in Atlanta, a brawl broke out, two were found dead, and Lewis, along with two others, was charged with murder the next day. Ray Lewis was charged for a murder in a bar. Ray Lewis was going through hard time during this innocent and his career. Lewis pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and Superior Court Judge Alice D. Bonner sentenced Lewis to 12 months' probation, the maximum sentence for a first-time o...
It was then argued that it was not the league’s right to suspend the basketball player even if his opinion was offensive to others, but he still had the religious freedom to express his opinions as stated in the American constitution.... ... middle of paper ... ... This could be argued by the simple fact that the legal system (despite being a supposedly emotionless system), is in fact, based highly on emotion.
The National Football League is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference. The NFL was founded in 1920s and ever since then has been a representative of the "All-American, Family Entertainment, Sport". Football is played from kids starting at age five to adulthood and is very popular throughout different races and social classes. With the increase of people playing football, came the increase of the sports related injuries.
Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher killed Kasandra Perkins, the mother of his daughter, before killing himself. Professional athletes are arrested for domestic violence every week. But violence agains women is not anythng new. Many years ago, during the Vietnam war, more women were dying from domestic violence than the total number of men killed in Vietnam!
Many memories are made in football, but sadly some of the greatest players cannot recall them. The National Football League has been associated with concussions and brain traumas throughout the years, but lately it has been exposed by media and NFL veterans. The league recently “reached a $765 million preliminary settlement with thousands of former players who were suing the league over its treatment of concussions…” (Waldron). Many former players are experiencing the effects of taking hard hits over and over again; they were not properly treated, which makes the injury worse and long term. The concussion issue in the NFL is more prevalent today, because it affects not only the players, but the league as a whole.
A penalty flag is down for a growing number of professional athletes. Some, accused of domestic violence, others charged with assault. What has caused this sudden increase in domestic violence by professional athletes? Nothing. There has not been any increase at all. Professional athletes have been beating and abusing women for a long, long time. Years ago, a lady called 911 and said that her husband was beating her. She wanted to file a report, but then asked the dispatcher if it was going to be in the paper the next day. When the dispatcher did not reply, the woman changes her mind about the report and hangs up (Cart). The woman was Sun Bonds, wife of professional athlete, Barry Bonds. Like the wives of other famous players, she was a victim of spousal abuse. Professional athletes are praised as heroes for what they do on the playing field, but what they do off the field is NEVER mentioned. As a very disappointed sports fan, I want to draw attention to the domestic violence cases that involve athletes.
...uck, Ray. "For NFL's invincible warriors, drug use can be a fatal flaw." 14 Sep 2000. 23 July 1998
Recent issues with the NFL not doing enough with head injuries has become a top news issue. the NFL has had several class action lawsuits against them. From several different head injuries that you can get, the post NFL injury is a very rough thing to deal with. Some say the ...
The National Football League is made up of 32 teams that were once founded in 1920 by a group of people who helped form the league. In the beginning the league wasn’t really structured to what it is now. Teams will just play and no playoff games, seeding’s, or the game itself matter because not only was the game was overshadow by America’s past time baseball, but it was difficult because the college game was established as well. Owning a team was extremely hard because owner’s will spent large amounts of cash and participate in bidding wars for players. Fast-forward to today’s day and age it is safe to say the NFL may be the most brutal and exciting game to play. Rule’s and norms are intact for teams to do things more ethical. Money is what really drives this business and of course constant advertisement to promote its brand. With some of that revenue, the NFL has opened a program called NFL: Play 60. The purpose of this program is to encourage kids to be physically active for 60 minutes in a day to reduce America’s child obesity. The NFL has been successful because in 2010 the first lady Michelle Obama announced it would be teaming up with NFL PLAY 60 as a health imitative for children. This was a great move for the brand because The First Lady’s office and...
One of the most large-scale and complex problems America deals with each year is that of domestic violence. This crime is one which leaves the victim filled with fear, anxiety, and shame; feelings that one should not have to feel. Yet as America progresses through time, no one solution has been proven to significantly reduce the ongoing domestic violence occurrence. However, the potential for lowering the number of domestic violence occurrences is present, but first solutions for reducing this problem have to be found such as the creation of community based programs, increased censorship in television, administering treatment to potential perpetrators, and enforcing more harsh penalties.
As professional athletes remind us on a weekly basis, domestic violence is a social problem which continues to plague the nation. Through stricter law enforcement, improved hospital reporting techniques, and nationwide education and counseling, this problem can be reduced. Domestic violence has many different names such as, family violence, battering, wife beating, and domestic abuse. All these terms refer to the same thing, abuse by marital, common law, or a dating partner in an intimate relationship. Domestic violence is not limited to physical beating. It is any behavior that is intended to overpower and control another human being through the use of humiliation, fear, and physical or verbal assault. Domestic violence is a very important issue in today’s society because it has such a profound negative affect on the abused, mentally and physically. Verbal abuse can be just as damaging as physical abuse. Verbal abuse is words that attack or injure an individual’s self-image, which eventually shatters one’s self-esteem. In this paper, I will discuss the many kinds of abuses against women, the reasons why women stay in these relationships, and possible solutions to diminish or reduce the problems of domestic violence.
Domestic violence is skyrocketing in our society. In the U.S., as many as 1.5 million women and 850,000 men were physically assaulted by their intimate partner last year, and numerous children abused by their parents. These sad criminal acts will continue to grow in our society, unless our community takes action to stop these crimes.