Did Roger Goodell Eliminate Domestic Violence Or Encourage Under Reporting?

How can you tell if you have no clue about the importance of women to your company or to society?  No, this isn't about Hobby Lobby again, its about a football commissioner.

Roger Goodell was just recently introduced to a rather insensitive guy that just so happens to have the same name as him.  That's probably what Goodell is telling himself now that he thinks he is the new crusader for domestic violence.  In an epic move of historical significance, Goodell has upped the ante on players who beat their women.

Prior to the start of training camp, Goodell was painfully forced to make a ruling on Baltimore Raven running back Ray Rice after video surfaced of a vicious altercation between he and his wife (then fiance) Janay Palmer. When Palmer did the 'ride or die' move and laid on the knife for the both of them (his money is her money), Goodell fell for the okie doke and assumed his chauvinistic fan base would find a  2 game suspension of Rice sufficient damage to their fantasy football teams.  More games than that would be threatening to shut down one of the top  running backs in a league that doesn't expect running backs to survive very long to begin with.  One lost season for a running back that has relationship problems could have been the kiss of death to his career and the Ravens chance to rise to the top of the league again.

Besides.  Its not like he smoked some weed or something like that.

Forget about the collective bargaining agreement that allowed for wacky weed sentencing.  American's believe that the punishment still has to fit the crime, and Goodell has just decided that one weed violator is almost three times the NFL criminal of a first time knockout artist like Ray Rice.  No Rog'.  We do not want you to retroactive the punishment or change the collective bargaining agreement.  You simply need to think about what you are saying when you're talking to would be abusers.

The message?:  if that &#$!$# makes you mad, you get one time to NOT handle it well......but after that we might ban you for life,( but probably just one year) unless you offer up the proper contrition before camera as Rice did to achieve his 2 game ban.

So let me make sure I am clear on this. A first time offender could come short of murder, but it would only cost them 6 games? A first time offender, who probably needs a little time off for therapy sake after getting placed in a cold, overcrowded, overnight jail cell, only gets 6 games? Since the whole world knows this rule now, will the first of the first time offenders simply figure that he will likely lose six games anyway, so he might as well get his six games worth?

Maybe there will never be one player who fits this distorted view of the "first time offender" that I've just laid out, but there better not be either.  Anyone who jaw jacks his fiance like Rice did, has the kind of problem that an aggressive game like football won't properly nurture.  Trust me.  I have some women in my family who sincerely believe that they can fight better than most guys.  Prior to their adulthood, I sincerely used to agree. Janay Palmer does remind me of some lady in my family, but I am not interested in seeing her or my cousin Boom Boom hit their stupid men upside the head any more than I am interested in allowing NFL football to set the lead on such a serious issue like domestic violence, especially when their leadership starts to look like spreading spilled milk with a wet mop.

What has been called a monumental clean up of a monumental mistake is more of a case of insult to injury if you ask me.  It's like Goodell accidentally confessed that blacks look like monkeys to him and then cleaned it up by saying that he made a mistake; only the monkey looking blacks look like monkeys.  In this comparison, Goodell has made it pretty clear that there is no place in the NFL for domestic violence....so you better not do it twice or we will review your case to see if you deserve a lifetime ban or not.

Huh?

The real motivation of my indignation is the improper revelation of domestic altercations.  In other words, teams under report incidents of domestic violence already, and this ruling is likely to force the hider's into deeper hiding given the significant risk that comes with a second offense.  What is the penalty for teams that hide abuse? That first time penalty will not be significant enough to catch the raised hand of an abuser mid-motion, just before anger and rage do what anger and rage do to those without proper control of these emotions.  But that second time penalty WILL curb first time reporting

Fret not Goodell.  At least your ruling will curb something.