NFL Owns Up to Mistake

The world today is dominated by social media. Suddenly, it isn't just the celebrities making news or starting a movement. People of any social class, no credentials and no relevance are suddenly critics. Suddenly, they are having an impact on one of the most dominant industries in the United States. 

The NFL has recently been under fire with how they have handled some off the field issues. There have been more suspensions the past few summers summer than in the past. Most of these suspensions have to do with drug abuse, or Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs). Since Roger Goodell has been the commissioner, he has cracked down on those things, as well as illegal hits. However, recently all of his positive efforts to improve the integrity of the game have been overshadowed by one miscue.

On February 15, 2014, Rice and his now-wife Janay Palmer were both arrested after a TMZ video leaked out showing Rice dragging out an unconscious Palmer from an elevator. After a ruling was made on from the court of law, it was time for the NFL to take action. On July 24, 2014, the NFL handed down a two game suspension to Ray Rice. 

Two games. Domestic Violence. 

In context, the NFL suspended Broncos kicker Matt Prater, Cowboys cornerback Orlando Scandrick, Colts defensive end Robert Mathis, Patriots cornerback Brandon Browner, amongst many others for FOUR games for violating the league's substance abuse policy. In Mathis' case it was a honest mistake (if we take his word for it), but in all cases, they just took something to give themselves an edge during games. A suspension is completely called for in this situation to preserve the integrity of the game and keep the NFL from going down the MLB route.

Josh Gordon, a rising superstar wide receiver for the Browns was recently suspended an entire year for substance abuse. He was a many times repeat offender of weed, so again, a suspension is the right decision, but weed does not give you a competitive edge nor does it harm anybody but yourself. 

What is worse? Smoking weed, albeit a countless amount of times, or physically harming a female, even once? I think most of us would side with the latter. 

This quickly made the NFL a laughing stock all over the internet. There were memes coming out saying it was better to hit a woman than to smoke weed, in accordance to how the NFL handled it via suspensions. This issue even caused prominent ESPN anchor and analyst Stephen A Smith to lose his job for a week for his misusage of words regarding the Rice incident. So this whole situation has had a profound impact in many ways. 

The NFL just yesterday addressed this issue is its proper manner. Goodell apologized for his misjudgement and came out with the new sanctions for domestic violence, six times for the first time offender, and indefinite for a second time offender. 

Well done. Next time, let's just hope the NFL can get it right the first time and not cause such a negative stir