To say that the NFL has handled the Ray Rice spousal abuse situation poorly is akin to suggesting that Ebola is only slightly terminal if not treated properly.
Quite simply put, it has been atrocious. It has resulted in one bad decision after another as the league's head office staggers from one PR disaster to the next. And to top it off they now have to deal with the Adrian Peterson child abuse case.
Now I don't know if you have seen the pictures of this "spanking" or not, I have, and I honestly wish I hadn't. This wasn't "discipline", this was flat out, sadistic abuse. Mr. Peterson has not denied his involvement, nor denied the method by which he savagely beat his son (one of five from five different women I believe), but the excuse offered was "i got beat like that when I was growing up and I turned out fine." Well actually Mr. Peterson, no, no you didn't turn out fine. You turned out to be a fully grown adult that thinks it is perfectly normal, indeed just a regular part of growing up, to use a tree branch to beat your cowering, screaming son, bloody. You savagely beat him with a tree branch all over his body, including his genitals, because he swore at his sibling. Boy I bet he learned his lesson, huh?
His employer, the Minnesota Vikings, initially deactivated him from playing in the team's first home game this past weekend, ostensibly because of his off-field behavior/legal troubles, but more practically because he was in jail in Texas answering a warrant for the afore-mentioned child abuse. He then posted bail, and the team said he was reactivated for this upcoming weekend's game. Except that now he isn't because it turns out that this gem of a father has beaten at least another one of his children bloody. And there are pictures of that one too.
The NFL is now in an utter disarray as they try and figure this all out. They initially suspended Ray Rice for two games for knocking his fiance out cold, and dragging her unconscious body out of an elevator, then, when the videotape of the attack was made public suspended him indefinitely and his team fired him. Think about that for a second. He had admitted that he had knocked her out cold and dragged her limp, temporarily stunned body out of an elevator, but it wasn't until visual evidence of that attack was made public did either his team, or the league, think they might not want him around anymore.
With the Adrian Peterson case, photographic evidence of the results of his sadistic abuse was enough for one weeks' suspension, but he wasn't indefinitely suspended from team activities until photographic evidence of a second, separate beating of a different child came to light.
So, according to the NFL, if you knock your woman out, but there's no video you get a two week suspension, and if you beat one child bloody you only get a one week time-out. Perfect, so the moral is don't beat your woman senseless if it might be caught on video, and only beat one child to blood, because two bloodied children is just wrong....
My head hurts...
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
The National Felons League...Part I
As things go rapidly from bad to worse for the NFL (or, perhaps more accurately the National Felons League) as teams find out that a surprising number of their violent and aggressive players are just as violent and aggressive off the field as on, it strikes me as somewhat peculiar that the general public seems outraged by these events.
Let me explain; it's not just that the game they play itself is based on aggressive possession of someone else's territory, or that it is by design a male-dominated activity whereby women are solely seen as jiggling eye-candy on the sidelines at the games, but these multi-million dollar thugs have always been this abusive, and they have almost never had to face responsibility for their actions.
It starts out in high school where, in some parts of the country, 'Friday Night Lights' isn't just a sporting event, but a religious experience. The successful boys on the team get preferential treatment at the schools, and blind-eyes are turned by Johnny Law when they "act out" or engage in "typical boys just being boys" pranks like raping unconscious girls at under-age drinking parties.
They behave in a criminal manner, but, for the most part, it is swept under the carpet and they get back to the business of being star high-school athletes.
End result - no culpability for their actions.
Then they go to college. Here, where the booze is at least legal, the "boys will be boys" pranks tend to escalate to more grown-up crimes like, assault, DUI, aggravated rape so on and so on. These too are swept under the rug, as are the failing grades which get excused, or changed, or in some cases, have someone else take the exams for you, so that they can get back to the business of being star college athletes.
End result - no culpability for their actions.
Then they go to the NFL. The game is even faster, even more brutal, but the rewards are astronomically higher. This is being done in an arena where hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake, and where franchises are worth billions. Here the crimes move to the highest level, assault with deadly weapons, vehicular manslaughter, obstructing justice, spousal abuse, child abuse, murder, and murder-for-hire.
End result - the general public is outraged that these players would behave this way, because it's not as though they've played to a different set of rules than the rest of us since the first time their athletic prowess was discovered.
Oh wait....
Never mind...
Let me explain; it's not just that the game they play itself is based on aggressive possession of someone else's territory, or that it is by design a male-dominated activity whereby women are solely seen as jiggling eye-candy on the sidelines at the games, but these multi-million dollar thugs have always been this abusive, and they have almost never had to face responsibility for their actions.
It starts out in high school where, in some parts of the country, 'Friday Night Lights' isn't just a sporting event, but a religious experience. The successful boys on the team get preferential treatment at the schools, and blind-eyes are turned by Johnny Law when they "act out" or engage in "typical boys just being boys" pranks like raping unconscious girls at under-age drinking parties.
They behave in a criminal manner, but, for the most part, it is swept under the carpet and they get back to the business of being star high-school athletes.
End result - no culpability for their actions.
Then they go to college. Here, where the booze is at least legal, the "boys will be boys" pranks tend to escalate to more grown-up crimes like, assault, DUI, aggravated rape so on and so on. These too are swept under the rug, as are the failing grades which get excused, or changed, or in some cases, have someone else take the exams for you, so that they can get back to the business of being star college athletes.
End result - no culpability for their actions.
Then they go to the NFL. The game is even faster, even more brutal, but the rewards are astronomically higher. This is being done in an arena where hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake, and where franchises are worth billions. Here the crimes move to the highest level, assault with deadly weapons, vehicular manslaughter, obstructing justice, spousal abuse, child abuse, murder, and murder-for-hire.
End result - the general public is outraged that these players would behave this way, because it's not as though they've played to a different set of rules than the rest of us since the first time their athletic prowess was discovered.
Oh wait....
Never mind...
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
When celebrity nipples are more important than war crimes..
Okay, some thoughts about the leaking of various and sundry celebrity women's nekkid pics. Can we get a little perspective here? Yes, this was gross violation of their privacy, but this talk about how this is just a continuation of the overall objectification of women, and how this continues to shame them, is, in my humble opinion, massively overblown.
These women all agreed to have these pictures taken, no-one forced them, and men, since the beginning of time, have done all they can to look at women naked. We're hard-wired that way. Oh, and really, 'objectifying'? Seeing Kate Upton or Rhianna starkers is different from how they present themselves in their day jobs how exactly?
Yes, again, these were private photographs, never meant to be seen by the public at large, but in the bigger picture, when we look at muslim radicals committing atrocities on a daily, if not hourly basis, in Iraq, and Russia and Ukraine are on the verge of a war that could trigger yet another global conflict, and the polar ice caps continue to melt; we're really supposed to get all bent out of shape because Jennifer Lawrence posed nude for her boyfriend once, and some sneaky git stole the pics from the cloud and posted them on the web?
I think not.
These women all agreed to have these pictures taken, no-one forced them, and men, since the beginning of time, have done all they can to look at women naked. We're hard-wired that way. Oh, and really, 'objectifying'? Seeing Kate Upton or Rhianna starkers is different from how they present themselves in their day jobs how exactly?
Yes, again, these were private photographs, never meant to be seen by the public at large, but in the bigger picture, when we look at muslim radicals committing atrocities on a daily, if not hourly basis, in Iraq, and Russia and Ukraine are on the verge of a war that could trigger yet another global conflict, and the polar ice caps continue to melt; we're really supposed to get all bent out of shape because Jennifer Lawrence posed nude for her boyfriend once, and some sneaky git stole the pics from the cloud and posted them on the web?
I think not.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)