By the time you’re earning seven figures to play, the phrase “it’s just a game” no longer applies.
For professional athletes, the game itself is only a fraction of the job description. Ray Rice wasn’t getting paid $3 million to play football. He was getting paid $3 million to play football and not punch anyone—on camera, that is.
Rice lost his job Monday afternoon and his unpaid suspension skyrocketed from two games to the indefinite future after video evidence proved what most people already knew—he knocked out his fiancee in an elevator.
So who gets the blame? The obvious answer would be Ray Rice—he’s the perpetrator and the clear guilty party. The discussion could end here, if Rice was an isolated case. But counting this case, three NFL players in as many months have faced domestic dispute charges. San Francisco 49ers defensive end Ray MacDonald was involved in a domestic violence case and received the new NFL-minimum six-game suspension. Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy was found guilty of assaulting a female and played with his team in Week 1.
According to public opinion, the blame has officially shifted from Rice to the authority who didn’t punish him correctly the first time.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the elevator video footage was only recently unveiled, justifying the relatively light punishment doled out after the incident: two games without pay and fined for a third on “conduct detrimental to the NFL.” The general public bashed Goodell, citing the yearlong suspension given to Browns’ Josh Gordon for marijuana use as proof that the NFL doesn’t care about stopping—or even punishing—domestic violence.
But the law banning drugs from the league was established before Goodell’s reign, whereas the previous suspension for domestic violence lasted 1.5 games on average for first-time offenders. Promptly after people everywhere criticized Rice’s first round of punishments, Goodell rewrote the domestic violence policy—before the latest footage was revealed.
Goodell had to consider what the Ravens running back brings to the team as well as the entire league. The three-time Pro Bowler had jerseys on the market for $150 that are now being returned to stores or burned in light of the video’s release. Rice ran for 1,364 yards in 2011—his team’s 1,996 rushing yards ranked fourth in the AFC. It’s not unreasonable to argue that his punishment was light because he is a prominent figure and the face of his franchise.
If Goodell can’t own all the blame, where do we turn next? The Ravens made the mistake of implying some guilt fell to Rice’s then-fiancée, Janay Palmer, who married Rice a month after the incident and spoke alongside her husband at a press conference in March, saying she “deeply regrets her role in the incident.” The quote made it into a tweet from the Ravens account but was soon deleted after a public uproar decried the team for placing blame on a domestic violence victim.
Janay Rice isn’t guilty, but if the focal point of the controversy is the NFL’s opinion of domestic violence disputes, is the best example one where the couple ends up married? Janay Rice’s role in speaking out against domestic violence has been nonexistent in relationship to a league that claims 45 percent of its audience is female. Before female fans boycott the NFL altogether, they should question why Janay Rice offered an apology without any explanation for the evening’s events.
The public has wasted no time whatsoever voicing opinions on any available platform, and yet there is no clear-cut reaction and no singular guilty party. With two more acts of domestic violence despite an adjustment to the NFL’s policy, the problem lies with our opinion and portrayal of athletes themselves. If as a society we encourage habituated aggression on the field, then as a society we must make an effort to encourage separated field and free time.
The situation boils down to one simple point: as a professional athlete, time off the field is just as valuable—and just as scrutinized—as time on it. Video evidence or no, Ray Rice alone—not his coach, Goodell, or anyone else—is responsible for his actions.
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