Domestic violence is a very serious and real thing in the united states. According to the us department of justice, approximately 1.3 million women and over 800,000 men experience some type of domestic violence in the US every year. Domestic violence is not just a big problem for everyday people, it is also a very serious problem in the NFL. Recent events such as the Ray Rice incident is a very good example of how domestic violence is a very big issue among the NFL. Ray Rice was accused of hitting his wife and only suspended for two games at first. It wasn’t until the video came out that Rice was actually suspended from the NFL indefinitely. This caused a lot of controversy about how the NFL deals with their punishments. Many people were upset at first that the NFL has a worse punishment for layers who fail drug test than they do for people who hit their loved ones. Others were outraged that it took video being leaked for the league to realize how bad it was and suspend Rice.
Shortly after the incident with Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson came out and admitted to beating his child after he had already been charged with child abuse and the NFL had done nothing about it. This brings up the question why the league never did anything about it. It also makes you wonder, did they even Know about it? And if they didn’t, why are they not keeping a good watch on their players? The Peterson case coming out right after the Rice incident really make a lot of people start questioning how this NFL deals with these kinds of problems.
Since the incident the NFL has done many things to try to make it right. The commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, had stated things in press conferences such as, “Simply put we have to do better, and we will.” He has also talked about how he knows the NFL was wrong in these cases and that they will do better in the future and help increase awareness of the problem in the United States. Many people question if the NFL actually has learned their lesson or if they are just doing these things because of the bad press and media attention.
In my opinion, it is ridiculous how the league was dealing with these problems. domestic violence is a very serious crime and the NFL should have been more strict with players that violate this law. The only reason the NFL is doing anything about this now is because of the media attention and bad press they have got. if they had it their way Rice would have still been playing and they would have still been acting like they know nothing about Petersons situation. It is good to see that the leagues is taking some responsibility for their actions and trying to make it right now. Although I still believe that it should not have taken two big incidents like this for them to realize how big the problem was and to do the right thing.
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