The National Football League just announced that they were hiring former FBI Head Robert Mueller to investigate who knew what and when in the Ray Rice domestic violence case.
It is my understanding that the investigation has nothing to do with whether Rice was guilty of anything since the video tape shows him slugging the woman, knocking her out cold on the elevator.
The focus of the Mueller investigation is the NFL itself. According to some news sources, the NFL was delivered the video months ago and it was reported that at least one person thought to be either an NFL executive or an assistant to the executive viewed the tape and commented on the content.
The outcry centers on whether the NFL knew long ago that Rice was a wife beater and willfully chose to ignore it because Ray Rice was a high profile player for the Baltimore Ravens.
Roger Goodell was asked when the NFL learned of the video and he said it was Monday of this week (September 8, 2014). Goodell was asked more than once to make certain he was sure he knew the importance of his answer. He then clarified that “to my knowledge, we did not know” or words to that effect.
Should we care when he knew? I don’t care, do you?
The moral outrage pushed by the press is laughable. Everyone knows businesses protect their image and make every effort to keep their dirty laundry out of the public eye.
For me, this is just another case similar to the NBA’s handling of Donald Sterling. Moral outrage over Sterling’s bigotry. If the press was actually doing their job every day, they would have turned up stories about racism, bigotry and domestic violence as it happened rather than weeks later.
The NBA knew Sterling was a bigot, but the video tape forced them to act out against Sterling because they didn’t want to be viewed as tolerant to bigotry. The truth is, rich guys like Sterling are all a little quirky and as a group NBA owners accept the quirks in each other because they don’t want their own to be exposed.
Once again, in the NFL case, the press is working to make a story. In this case they are focusing on the NFL cover-up rather than the substance of the event; domestic violence.
For me, I’m concerned about whether a crime was committed when Rice slugged the woman. If that was a crime and Rice wasn’t arrested then I’m concerned about the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction in the community where the crime took place. They had the tape, did they do their job?
If the event wasn’t viewed as a crime then what SHOULD be done? Is there a distinction between domestic violence that is criminal behavior and another type that is not criminal behavior? Is it okay to hit your girlfriend a little? At what point does slapping her around become a crime? At what point does it become unacceptable behavior even if it’s not a crime?
The issue of domestic violence in our country is wide spread, not just in the NFL. In this case, we are looking at a high profile football player who punches his girlfriend. A case where the girl friend absolutely refuses to press charges against Rice, a man who she married after the beating.
So is the important issue that should be investigated, the NFL, and whether they knew or didn’t know or whether domestic violence is acceptable behavior in our society regardless of the profession or line of work.
A “women’s” organization pointed out that more than fifty cases of domestic violence against professional football players have been filed with the courts without much more than a peep from the NFL. Seemingly, the NFL condones bad behavior because they choose to do nothing about it when they learn it exists.
It appears that the NFL came late to moral outrage. But without a formal investigation, they kicked Ray Rice out of the league. The Baltimore Ravens canceled Rice’s contract and released him. All of this took place without an investigation further than the one where the Ravens suspended Rice for two games. That would suggest that at least the Ravens knew the real substance of Rice’s behavior from the beginning and felt that two games was appropriate punishment. Then changed their mind when clear evidence showing Rice slugging the woman became public. What was the two game suspension for?
Keep in mind that they don’t kick players out of the league for clearly criminal acts. Drug dealing and homicide gets you jail time, but then you come back. Suspension for a short time, maybe. Ray Rice was kicked out… permanently.
If Americans want to be outraged about domestic violence then let’s do it right. Let’s look at baseball players, basketball players and hockey players. Then we should look at policemen, firemen, lawyers, doctors and beer truck drivers. The issue of domestic violence isn’t an issue unique to any one line of work; it’s everywhere. The question is how important it is in society and how tolerant we are when we find it.
The problem in our country is we have lost our morality. We’ve become a country that accepts bad behavior because it takes too much effort to stand up for the right thing(s). Ultimately, this is one of the flaws that will bring our country down.
How much bad behavior can we tolerate?
When you know the guy you work with beats his wife or girlfriend, you assume some of his guilt if you don’t do something to stop it. The time when you kept your mouth shut and mind your own business has passed. If we expect society to deal harshly with domestic violence or drug use or any other criminal behavior, it has to start with each of us standing up and demanding that we start at the grass roots level and work out way up from there. Or we can start at the top and demand that our leaders perform to a higher moral standard and work down. Either way we have to start.
I don’t view Ray Rice any different than I do a police officer who beats his wife.
Demanding that Roger Goodell be fired is ludicrous. I don’t even care if Goodell was flat out lying. Absent a conduct policy in the NFL that is enforced like the drug use policy, it’s up to the individual teams to deal with cases. It certainly suggests that a discussion is warranted at the highest levels in every sports organization to determine their tolerance or willingness to act regarding bad behavior.
Sadly, I’m not holding my breath. Just look at professional organizations for lawyers and doctors. When they know there are members of their profession who are of questionable moral standing, they just keep their heads down and their mouths shut because they don’t want to speak up and strip a fellow of his or her ability to make a living. Bad behavior is accepted practice.
School teachers, fire fighters, policemen, accountants, stockbrokers… you name it; bad behavior is acceptable behavior.
Unless we stand up and demand better at a local level.
No Loss for Words 
Supreme Court of Last Resort?
by Steve DanaLike a lot of us, I was sure the Supreme Court would make a favorable ruling on the Affordable Health Care case and render the whole thing unconstitutional. Sadly, that didn’t happen. I never actually read the act so I’m not sure why I thought it would be overturned. I guess that NOT reading thing is a failing we all suffer from.
With regard to the Court’s ruling, the two sides can argue about the motivation of Justice Roberts and the merits of the health care statute till the cows come home but the fact remains until the thing is repealed it is the law of the land.
In the legislative arena we see majority parties jam through bad laws every day; whether it’s a state legislature or the US Congress, the majority rules. I don’t remember which pundit said it but I have to agree that the laws passed by a majority don’t make them fair or just or right but they are legal. The recourse is to amend or repeal them.
And, whining seldom changes a thing. For all the years that the Democrats ran roughshod over the state of Wisconsin the Republicans had to take it. That was just the way it was.
Then, the tide turned and the remaining Democrats had to taste a little of their own medicine.
Needless to say payback’s a bitch. Interestingly though when they were getting their lunch handed to them, instead of gracefully taking it, they bolted the legislature to prevent the Republican majority from voting on legislation they disagreed with. A very childish response revealing something about their character but again, whining doesn’t change a thing but it can make you look really stupid.
In all my years in government I have been a champion of process. Reliable, predictable process is what makes the system work.
In the case of the Obamacare Affordable Healthcare Law the Democrats held a super-majority in both houses of the Congress so they didn’t have to follow the normal process prescribed by their “rules” because they were able to “suspend the rules” when it suited their needs. The two thousand six hundred page law was drafted outside of the normal process and the substance was never debated in any committees so when the whole thing was engrossed for approval very few people knew what actually was in it.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi was crowing at the microphone prior to the House vote, “We have to approve the bill before we can find out what’s in the bill.” And all the Democrats were actually onboard with her? What’s with that?
Maybe they did know what was in it and knew of the firestorm that would follow if it were exposed in public. So they consciously demonstrated a willingness to subvert the process and deceive the country with their supposed ignorance rather than taking the heat of the normal public process. Those House members who supported that action should have been vilified publicly at the least and thrown out of office at the first opportunity.
From a process standpoint that should be a fatal flaw. Not so much a Constitutional flaw but clear sign of bad faith government.
So here we are, the court has let stand one of the worst laws ever passed by the Congress. In the Majority Opinion, Chief Justice Roberts tries to clarify that the Court’s job is not to invalidate bad legislation because it’s bad, but to determine the Constitutionality of the legislation. In a very carefully worded opinion the Court ruled that most of the law would survive.
Bummer!
It would have been so simple for the court to overturn the law and send it back to the Congress for a “do over” but it didn’t happen. And in spite of the fact that I would have preferred that outcome the “process guy” in me knew the only real resolution for bad law is to amend it or repeal it in the same venue as it was created.
If we rally the troops to elect Republicans this fall, what exactly will our healthcare bill look like? In the past two years the Republican majority in the House has held a bunch of hearings and voted on more than one healthcare bill that died in the Senate. So do they have one they are willing to fall on their sword for?
Republicans need to articulate what Healthcare Reform looks like for them since the Democrats have their deal on the table. Complaining about bad legislation is not a substitution for a better alternative.
We need to elect enough members to both the House of Representatives and the Senate to send a bill the new President that will accomplish what we wanted the court to do.
I hope we’re up to the task.
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