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...
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