This September, many exciting changes are happening. Schools are in session, the weather is getting cooler (unless you live in Alabama, apparently,) and the most exciting season of the year is beginning – football season. College football is king in the South, but the NFL is unrivaled in popularity nationwide. Regular season games trump almost all other television programs on a weekly basis, and according to The Neilson Company, over 111 million people watched Super Bowl XLVIII, making it the most watched television program in American history.
The NFL is enjoying unprecedented success, and football has aspirations of not only being America’s sport of choice, butgrowing a fan base all around the world. Although we should have been celebrating the kickoff of the 2014 season, events in the NFL last week showed the NFL has some serious problems that will affect their growth in America and abroad.
As fans flocked to their teams’ stadiums for the first time this season, controversy was marring the spectacle. Instead of a week celebrating football, we had a week that made us question the integrity of the league. Ray Rice, a popular running back formerly on the Baltimore Ravens, was cut by his team and indefinitely suspended by the NFL last week after a gruesome video surfaced of him twice punching his fiancee, now wife. Indicted for aggravated assault in March, Rice had already been suspended for two games for the incident by the NFL before the video surfaced. However, an Associated Press report says the video had been sent to the NFL office in April, a full three months before the two game suspension, and almost five months before the indefinite suspension. This revelation came just one day after Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner, said that his office had not seen the video until it was made public in September.
This raises two questions. First, why was a two-game suspension deemed enough punishment for an incident of domestic violence, whether there was a video or not? Second, why did the NFL only take action after the video became public if they had all the information they needed in April?
A cultural force as large as the NFL has a responsibility to society to set a good example. At the very least, it should exhibit an appearance of trying to do the right thing. Sure, the NFL has created a new “VP of social responsibility” and hired four women to “shape policy in the matter of domestic violence.” These attempts are welcome, but it is obvious that it is a publicity stunt. The revelation that the NFL only took action after the public was made aware of the video is damning, and it shows that the NFL is not truly concerned with the issue of domestic violence.
If it is true officials as high as Goodell were complicit in the cover-up of the video, serious steps need to be taken. Obviously, the NFL would need to fire Goodell and other administrators responsible. Unfortunately, the group of 32 owners that would vote on such an upheaval is fiercely loyal to Goodell, and some have come out in his defense. The NFL seems to have one foot in the social justice arena while firmly remaining in its comfortable “boys club” with the 32 wealthy owners that make the decisions.
To remain at the forefront of American entertainment and culture, the NFL needs to address these structural issues.
Kyle Simpson is a sophomore majoring in biology. His column runs biweekly.
