Domestic Violence: Domestic Violence in the NFL
Lon Abercrumbie III
DeVry University
Domestic Violence: Domestic Violence in the NFL
On April 10, 2007, after more than 50 National Football League players had been arrested in the previous football season, Commissioner Roger Goodell was widely hailed for instituting a newly stringent personal conduct policy. Mr. Goodell threatened to banish players for off-the-field transgressions and installed himself as the judge and jury presiding over every case. Mr. Goodell insisted that he would mete out discipline without waiting for the judicial system. “It is my job — not law enforcement’s job — to protect the National Football League,” he said at the time. But in his role as the N.F.L.’s hard-bitten sheriff, Mr. Goodell appears to have had a major blind spot: domestic violence cases. Players charged with domestic violence routinely received considerably lighter punishments than players accused of other offenses, like drug use or drunken driving. Often, they were not punished at all. On September 19th 2014, seven years after he implemented the personal conduct policy, Mr. Goodell acknowledged publicly that it had failed and would be overhauled (Pennington, 2014).
Although Goodell did step up to the plate and acknowledge that he had made a mistake, it took for too much to happen before this announcement was made. To those who may not be aware, NFL running back Ray Rice was involved in an altercation where he hit his fiancé in the face and knocked her unconscious in an elevator. Goodell was informed about the incident months ago and only suspended Ray Rice for 2 games, but recently the video footage surfaced of the incident and Goodell’s punishment was severely criticized. Now Goodell is revisiting all recent domestic violence cases and issuing a more stern punishment.
The purpose of this proposal is to touch on how long domestic violence has been an issue in the NFL. The other purpose is to stress to NFL...