What a way to kick off the new NFL season — with a sucker punch we all felt now that we’ve seen it.
It took a tabloid television show to release the seminal portion of a Feb. 15 elevator tape of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knocking out his then-fiancée, Janay, before Commissioner Roger Goodell and the National Football League leveled the punishment Rice should’ve gotten months ago.
After TMZ Sports made the tape public Monday morning, the NFL posted Rice’s “indefinite suspension” on its Twitter page
Nothing like a little film review, national outrage and league-wide embarrassment to make a man — and his league — finally do the right thing.
There is so much that is problematic with the NFL and the until-now largely unchecked and woefully under punished domestic violence of its players that it is dizzying to know where to start.
First, the league’s two-game suspension of what it assumed was Rice’s mere shabby treatment of Janay by dragging her limp body across the elevator opening into the hallway where he let her lay, partially exposed, until hotel personnel showed up, should’ve been enough for Rice to be relieved of his running back duties — without pay and with stiff fines — for at least half the season. Then the league should’ve launched its own investigation and gotten a look at the full tape because no one walks into an elevator and is then dragged off without something devastating happening in the interim.
This way Goodell and the NFL would’ve beaten TMZ Sports to the punch (no pun intended) with evidence that was clearly there for the viewing.
Secondly, since money is the only relationship participants in glamour professions understand, then Goodell and the league need to know they’ve set themselves up for a potential legal battle with Rice.
How?
The NFL may be lying to cover its own turf about whether or not league officials had already viewed the punching segment of the tape. A hotel staffer says the league had previously viewed the tape showing what happened inside the elevator.
This means the original two-game suspension Rice thought he was getting was leveled under false pretenses and now yanked away in exchange for more serious punishment under more false pretenses.
So, would the league then be liable to pay Rice for the games he would have played since it now seems the NFL should show and prove it had no prior knowledge of Rice’s violent behavior inside the elevator?
Finally, it is clear Rice is not the only one guilty of flagrant misbehavior.
What, exactly, is the National Football League and what does it want us — the fans — to think of it?
Since I was a Forest Park fifth grader and in love with Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, “Mean Joe” Greene and those Pittsburgh Steelers, I have always thought the NFL was merely a shelter from the outside world for roughnecks who probably had coping issues off the field.
In those days there weren’t nearly the fouls, penalties, rules and fines prevalent today, so the game was medieval and players played with broken and dislocated bones, concussions, torn this and ripped that.
Made sense in my mind even then they probably weren’t making the smoothest off-field transitions.
After our dad took us to the Hall of Fame in Canton, I fully understood the game and its history, majesty and grit, but there was always a lingering suspicion that these guys would never have to face the music like the rest of us because the rest of us held winning and That Championship Season in too high regard to let a little off-field boozing, snorting, carousing or domestic violence keep a key player from playing in the big game.
Now that time and rules have changed and the public consciousness is being raised by TMZ videos, do NFL fans know just how much power we have?
This will never happen, but indulge me for a second.
What if Ravens fans — no, all NFL fans — boycotted the very next game? Just didn’t show up, despite already having a ticket and those of us who watch at home just didn’t turn to ESPN or whatever other broadcast network and everything was dark?
What if even half of us did this?
(Imaginary commercial break.)
Of course not because we pay a lot of lip service to our temporary outrage, but we’re not willing to send the real message of zero tolerance where it’ll really be felt — NFL coffers.
Players won’t be hurt by a temporary, one-game boycott. Owners and league-licensed paraphernalia sales will, though, and that’s precisely the point.
New England Patriots owner and millionaire Bob Kraft, on CBS This Morning Tuesday, claimed Goodell had no prior knowledge of the contents of the interior elevator tape. Kraft also called Rice’s violent behavior “disgusting” and said that “someone affiliated with that has no place in the NFL. I’d be surprised if anyone else would pick him up. I’d be surprised if he plays another game in the NFL.”
Of course Kraft is going to publicly protect Goodell. There’s a vested business interest to protect, and now that Rice can no longer run, jump and catch for the wealthy white men who hired him, he’s a pariah, a black and lowly thug now excommunicated without so much as treatment, guidance or real-world tools to keep him from exploding on Janay — now his wife — one last, deadly time.
Let this be a warning to all the closet abusers who just have not been caught on film — all the closet abusers throughout all the glamour professions.
All the rappers, musicians, politicians: If you cannot bother yourself with anger management or tamp down your narcissism, then be concerned at the very least with losing your livelihood and all the trappings that money buys.
And ladies, get out as soon as your abusive man loses that job because he just may take out his embarrassment, aggravation and frustration on your dome.
And though there are cameras nearly everywhere, there aren’t cameras everywhere.
CONTACT KATHY Y. WILSON: letters@citybeat.com
This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2014.