With both Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson stories "surfacing" within weeks of each other the country is enthralled in a moral/economical debate on the role of the NFL and more specifically Roger Goodell.
The Story (brief):
Rice was arrested for punching his fiance in the face and dragging her out of an elevator while she was unconscious. This happened back in March, however the video of the event "supposedly" didn't reach the hands of the NFL until early September. Just weeks later news came out that an arrest warrant was issued for Vikings Running Back Adrian Peterson for allegations of child abuse.
This is Ray Rice. Smiling because he has so much money that he can get away with anything...
And this is Adrian Peterson. Do not be confused by the color of the jersys girls, they are on two different teams.
*Were on two different teams...
So what did the NFL do about it?? Surely they gave these guys the boot, because who would want wife beaters and child abusers as the face of the NFL? Yeah, you'd think so. But the problem is, both of these guys bring in LOTS of money. And the NFL is all about making money. Remember, the NFL cares nothing about right and wrong, or that silly term "morality", No the only M word to the NFL is "Money".
Ray Rice was initially slapped with a 2 game suspension. HOWEVER, when the video came out showing him PUNCH his fiance in the face in an elevator, the NFL decided "wait a minute, this guy is a bad guy, he gets an indefinite suspension.
Controversial point: the Casino reps say they gave the video to the NFL months ago. Which means that Rodger Goodell simply waited to see if it would never come out. if Rice and put butts in seats and make him more money, he will let Rice play.. But when the public became outraged over the video, Goodell said "this is the first we have seen the video, Ray's action are deplorable..." and boom, indefinite suspension. So it looks like as far as the NFL was concerned, its only bad if people know about it.
- "Commissioner, we have reports that you have had the video for months, how do you respond?"
- "..... um, nuh uh."
And as for Adrian Peterson, has the NFL even done anything?? Because as far as I know, the Minnesota Vikings deactivated him for week 2 when the news came out. Smart move, we don't know what this is, so we will play it smart and immediately take him out of the lineup. BUT, then the team reinstated him saying "Adrian is a big part of this team and he will play next week" Bla bla bla...
Only a day later more allegations came out against him and the Vikings placed Peterson on what is called the "Exempt/Commissioner's Permission list" which means he isn't going to play all season, they free up his roster spot, AND he continues to make his 700k per game. That move to me seems like a way to protect their player from being picked up by another team should they have decided to cut him and then this all quietly goes away. But what did the NFL do? What did Rodger Goodell do? Nothing. So far nothing has been done, Goodell should have come up with Petersons punishment, and in my book both he and Rice should be saying bye bye to the NFL with no more pay days.
I am sick of These Athletes and other famous people getting special treatment simply because they are worth a lot of money. If I punched my fiance in the face, she'd press charges and I'd probably end up in Jail for a bit. If I beat my children the way Peterson did (don't any of you try and tell me it was discipline, that was way beyond discipline) I'd lose my kids and go to jail.
Off the top of my head....
Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice, Michael Vick, Ben Rothlisberger, Plaxico Burress, Donte Stallworth, Ray McDonald, Aaron Hernandez, Pacman Jones, and I am absolutely not leaving Ray Lewis off this list.
These are players with allegations and arrests for more serious crimes, I left possession arrests off because then I'd have to list the whole NFL.
The NFL teaches it's players how to channel and use their anger, which is great for the game. But the problem is, they do not teach them how to come down from that anger. How to properly handle those situations. They create these larger than life (literally) beasts who when put up against a wall, can inflict SERIOUS damage on people. And as we are seeing right now, women and children are no safer than you and I.
This was a poorly constructed post, so I will likely take it down. But in the spirit of good fun, here are some gifs of football NOT sucking....
Fin.
The Story (brief):
Rice was arrested for punching his fiance in the face and dragging her out of an elevator while she was unconscious. This happened back in March, however the video of the event "supposedly" didn't reach the hands of the NFL until early September. Just weeks later news came out that an arrest warrant was issued for Vikings Running Back Adrian Peterson for allegations of child abuse.
 |
This is Ray Rice. Smiling because he has so much money that he can get away with anything...
And this is Adrian Peterson. Do not be confused by the color of the jersys girls, they are on two different teams.
*Were on two different teams...
So what did the NFL do about it?? Surely they gave these guys the boot, because who would want wife beaters and child abusers as the face of the NFL? Yeah, you'd think so. But the problem is, both of these guys bring in LOTS of money. And the NFL is all about making money. Remember, the NFL cares nothing about right and wrong, or that silly term "morality", No the only M word to the NFL is "Money".
Ray Rice was initially slapped with a 2 game suspension. HOWEVER, when the video came out showing him PUNCH his fiance in the face in an elevator, the NFL decided "wait a minute, this guy is a bad guy, he gets an indefinite suspension.
Controversial point: the Casino reps say they gave the video to the NFL months ago. Which means that Rodger Goodell simply waited to see if it would never come out. if Rice and put butts in seats and make him more money, he will let Rice play.. But when the public became outraged over the video, Goodell said "this is the first we have seen the video, Ray's action are deplorable..." and boom, indefinite suspension. So it looks like as far as the NFL was concerned, its only bad if people know about it.
 | |||
- "..... um, nuh uh."
And as for Adrian Peterson, has the NFL even done anything?? Because as far as I know, the Minnesota Vikings deactivated him for week 2 when the news came out. Smart move, we don't know what this is, so we will play it smart and immediately take him out of the lineup. BUT, then the team reinstated him saying "Adrian is a big part of this team and he will play next week" Bla bla bla...
Only a day later more allegations came out against him and the Vikings placed Peterson on what is called the "Exempt/Commissioner's Permission list" which means he isn't going to play all season, they free up his roster spot, AND he continues to make his 700k per game. That move to me seems like a way to protect their player from being picked up by another team should they have decided to cut him and then this all quietly goes away. But what did the NFL do? What did Rodger Goodell do? Nothing. So far nothing has been done, Goodell should have come up with Petersons punishment, and in my book both he and Rice should be saying bye bye to the NFL with no more pay days.
I am sick of These Athletes and other famous people getting special treatment simply because they are worth a lot of money. If I punched my fiance in the face, she'd press charges and I'd probably end up in Jail for a bit. If I beat my children the way Peterson did (don't any of you try and tell me it was discipline, that was way beyond discipline) I'd lose my kids and go to jail.
Off the top of my head....
Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice, Michael Vick, Ben Rothlisberger, Plaxico Burress, Donte Stallworth, Ray McDonald, Aaron Hernandez, Pacman Jones, and I am absolutely not leaving Ray Lewis off this list.
These are players with allegations and arrests for more serious crimes, I left possession arrests off because then I'd have to list the whole NFL.
The NFL teaches it's players how to channel and use their anger, which is great for the game. But the problem is, they do not teach them how to come down from that anger. How to properly handle those situations. They create these larger than life (literally) beasts who when put up against a wall, can inflict SERIOUS damage on people. And as we are seeing right now, women and children are no safer than you and I.
This was a poorly constructed post, so I will likely take it down. But in the spirit of good fun, here are some gifs of football NOT sucking....
 |
| Nobody high 5's Tom Brady. Nobody. |
 | ||
| Ok, the first guy gets owned... but how does the second guy just dive behind Johnson?? |
 |
| OK, not the NFL, but a play that would be hysterical to watch Brady try. |
 |
| "Backflip time!! AWE YEAH! uh oh" |
Fin.
I'm completely with you that what Rice and Peterson did was wrong (to different degrees but that's irrelevant for the point I'm going to make) but I'm not sure exactly what you're proposing or suggesting.
ReplyDeleteAt one point you're suggesting that they're getting special treatment from the law. I'm not sure that is the case. You said if you had done something like Peterson did you would be arrested and thrown in jail...unless you posted bail which Peterson did. He was arrested and released on bail until his trial and the legal system takes time. As far as having his children taken away from him, I'm pretty sure he is no longer with the mother of his children and doesn't have primary custody. Is he spending any time with his kids since the arrest? Not that I have hear of.
As far as Ray Rice goes, from what I have heard New Jersey, where the incident occurred, is a state where the authorities can't press charges without the desire/consent of the victim and Janay Rice didn't want to press charges. This varies from state to state and you can disagree with the law if you want (I fail to see the logic for it) but it doesn't appear to me that he's getting preferential treatment from the law. In fact, I believe I had heard that this was only true in domestic abuse cases (ie the two people were married) and Ray and Janay got married after the incident. She can press charges whenever she wants. Maybe she views Ray as her cash cow though which is why she didn't. Not sure.
All of this is separate from what the NFL should do though. As one part is the law and the other is employer/PR based. First of all, in Ray Rice's situation he is no longer getting paid by the Ravens. There is dead money that was already paid to him that is counting against the Ravens salary cap but he is no longer receiving paychecks.
Adrian Peterson is receiving paychecks though and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. He has been arrested, indicted, and will be going to court but he hasn't been convicted yet. How many employers fire employees for being arrested? I would say honestly very few unless:
1. It caused him to miss work, which it hasn't yet
2. It was directly related to his job, ie he was accused of child abuse and he was a teacher
Even then most employers would impose some sort of leave (with or without pay) until the court case was over. If they were acquitted, they'd likely be hired back. If they were convicted they'd probably be fired. It's 'at will' employment though so the Vikings are free to release him if they want to. I guess I don't get why sports teams and athletes should be held to a higher moral standard in this regard than other employees/employers.
Now the reason they've done what they've done up to this point has been entirely driven by money (sponsors were cancelling) and PR (which the NFL and Vikings have botched). Those reasons are entirely legitimate in a league where image and marketability is what they are selling. And since Rice and Peterson are no longer as marketable as they were that's the only way in which it's actually affecting their job performance. It's not like these cases somehow made them worse at football. So at the end of the day they're being punished for committing a crime that affected their job performance. Yes, it took them a while to get there but that's where we're at now.
ReplyDeleteIf you're making the case that they should have been instantly fired does that hold true for anyone in any career? If you were booked for shoplifting, speeding, domestic abuse, or whatever would you expect to be fired before you had been convicted? Especially if it didn't affect your work performance? Would that also mean that other companies shouldn't hire you because of that? Or are there certain jobs where criminals can work and certain where they can't?
I don't see how this can make any sense outside of the money of saying that professional athletes are paid a lot of money and part of their job is to be marketable so they shouldn't get arrested. Whereas, working at McDonald's, you don't get paid as much but people care less about what you do in your spare time as long as you don't miss work, can make burgers quickly, and don't spit in them.