As the season is now underway for the NFL, the Baltimore Ravens have a lot more on their minds than winning their first few games.

On Monday, Sept. 8,  Ravens running back Ray Rice was cut from the team and suspended indefinitely from the NFL for attacking his fiancée (now wife), knocking her unconscious. The issue, however, goes much deeper than the Ravens simply losing a teammate. Domestic violence is the main issue at hand and it needs to stop.

While the three-time Pro Bowler was the face of the Ravens at the 2012 Super Bowl, his actions have now made him the current face of domestic violence in the NFL.

In February of this year, a short video of Rice abusing his then-fiancée in an Atlantic City elevator was leaked. In July, the NFL suspended Rice for two games, receiving some backlash for the leniency of his punishment. After the negative criticisms, Roger Goodell, NFL commissioner, re-evaluated punishments for domestic violence and changes were made. He then changed the penalty to a six-game suspension for the first offense and possible banishment for the second offense. The public was more pleased with this course of action and Goodell then apologized saying that he simply “didn’t get it right” in Rice’s case.

Shockingly, a second part of the video was leaked by TMZ on Monday and the NFL initially told the public that they had never seen the video before.

“That video was not made available to us and no one in our office has seen it until today,” NFL senior vice president of communications Greg Aiello said.

News has now come out from a law enforcement official, who told the Associated Press that the video was sent to the NFL months ago and that people in the NFL confirmed that it was “terrible.” Now, there is going to be an independent investigation by Former Director of the FBI Robert Mueller as to what actually happened with this video.

In my opinion, there is no way that the NFL had never seen this tape.

At the end of the day the NFL is a business, just like any other. All businesses’ number one goal is to make money, which hinges on a decent reputation. Whether it is true that the NFL had not seen the video until Monday or not, they are sticking to that story in order to preserve their image. Also, the Ravens’ number one goal is to make it to the Super Bowl and Rice was a key player to make that dream of theirs become a reality. The Ravens would do anything to keep one of their top players, even if it means turning a blind eye when videos such as this one surface.

Domestic violence is a bigger issue in America than people think. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence found that 30 percent of women in the U.S. have been slapped, pushed or shoved by an intimate partner and 19 percent of intimate partner violence involves a weapon. Every day, three women die because of domestic violence and in many cases, they are blamed for it.

A tweet from the Ravens’ official account from May stated, “Janay Rice deeply regrets the role that she played the night of the incident.” Many people are questioning why Janay is staying by Rice’s side after this incident. Some claim that Janay provoked the situation and others believe that she is a gold digger who is out for fame. Yet, the truth is, it is not uncommon for a victim of domestic abuse to not leave their abusers.

Many victims of domestic abuse stay with their abusers due to chemical, societal or psychological factors.

The Los Angeles Police Department issued a list of reasons why battered victims stay with the batterers. Some of those reasons include fear, economic dependence, helplessness or that the victim may rationalize the beatings. Some victims fear the abuser so much that they treat them as if they are “godlike.”

I believe that Rice deserves to be suspended indefinitely from the NFL. If the NFL lets this incident slide with Rice, then it will show that domestic violence is tolerated in this society and the issue will become even worse than it currently is.

 

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