Domestic Violence in The NFL @nflviolence-blog - Tumblr Blog

Forbes reports that according to their various sources, Judge Jones is expected to rule by Thanksgiving on Ray Rice's appeal for reinstatement into the NFL. At this point, Forbes believes that Jones will reinstate Rice into the league because:

1) Rice being suspended for the same incident

2) The NFL failed to follow their own internal policies on domestic violence punishments

3) The NFL's indefinite suspension of Rice is that equitable principles in sports labor law disfavor the lifetime or indefinite ban of athlete. An indefinite ban of a player is strongly frowned upon as a matter of public policy.

4) Might be found to violate antitrust law as a form of group boycott by a collection of different employer-teams. Rice's suspension may also be seen as violating American principles of free trade.

Completely ignoring that domestic violence is the real issue at hand, Forbes adds at the end, "Hopefully, the former Baltimore Ravens star will use his opportunity, if granted, to change his life for the better both on and off the gridiron."

ESPN reports that the Baltimore Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome testified under oath on Thursday November 6th that he heard Ray Rice tell commissioner Roger Goodell during his June 16 disciplinary hearing that he had hit his then-fiancee now-wife Janay Rice in the Atlantic City casino hotel elevator. Goodell was not at the Thursday hearing, however, he continued to deny this ever happened during his hearing on Wednesday and says that Rice's story was ambiguous and not matching up to what the elevator surveillance video shows.

NBC Sports released an article stating the first leak has emerged from the Ray Rice appeal hearing. Even though Judge Barbara Rice issued a gag order, someone must have spoken to reporters about the case. It has been said that Commissioner Roger Goodell testified for two hours on on November 5th. At this point, no one has released anything Goodell was asked or what he said on the stand.

This short clip shows Ray Rice arriving for the first day of his appeal hearing in New York on Wednesday November 5th with his wife by his side. The clips discusses the case, why Rice is appealing and if he does become reinstated, what team would want to pick him up.

This NPR clip gives an informative look into what should be expected during the 2-day appeal hearing to consider Ray Rice's case. Joel Rose and David Greene discuss what will most likely happen for either side. They also discuss that there is a lot on the line for Roger Goodell considering his story about the case since the video has been released.

The NFL is attempting to take the lead in speaking out about domestic violence after poorly handling the Ray Rice situation. Joe Ehrmann, a former Syracuse University football player, now motivational speaker working 30 years to end domestic violence, is starring in a new video produced by the NFL.

I agree that this is a good attempt by the NFL to help the domestic violence problem within the league, however, it would feel a lot better if their main attempt wasn't to protect their image they are so worried about fixing.

This feministing blog takes an extreme feminist approach in uncovering what is missed when the mainstream media talks about the Ray Rice case. This post goes into how we are angry at Rice but not at our own institutionalized hegemonic masculine ideology that made Rice violent and abusive and how this continues to be overlooked.

Former NFL executive, Jerry Angelo, told USA Today that teams did not discipline hundreds of players for domestic violence during his 30 years in the league. He says that the fact that he was apart of it and failed to do anything about it makes him a part of the NFL's domestic violence problem. Angelo was the general manager for the Chicago Bears from 2001 to 2011. After his reflection on the domestic violence matter, the Bear's released a statement denying any knowledge of Angelo's statements. "We were surprised by Jerry's comments and do not know what he is referring to."

This is just another example of the NFL covering up domestic violence within the league.

Two women narrate their ordeals. “You will hear of a wife murdered before you hear another one come forward.”

Two ex-wives to former NFL players tell their stories of how the NFL is extremely secretive and loyal to NFL players and will always protect them in domestic violence cases. The two women tell the Washington Post their own personal experiences with domestic violence and how the NFL treated them. By the end of the article these women believe that the Ray Rice case has made the NFL less safe for women.

Domestic violence cases within the NFL have gotten so out of hand that the White House had to comment on the situation saying that the league should have zero tolerance for this issue. This article also goes over the White House's new initiative "It's on Us" which aims to shift the way we as a country think about sexual assault by inspiring the people to see it as their responsibility to do something to prevent it. This article works well with my research because it has a feminist perspective as it keeps the victim in mind and addresses that there should ultimately be zero tolerance what-so-ever for domestic violence in this country. It is also refreshing to see the mainstream news take such an opposing stance on domestic violence.

This NYT explains that the NFLPA stated they hired an investigator to look into the due process, discipline, facts and conduct of the NFL and the Baltimore Ravens as they penalized Ray Rice for domestic violence. It talks about what will potentially happen in Ray Rice's appeal hearing.

The Associated Press released this story stating that an unnamed law enforcement official sent the inside elevator video to the NFL back in April. He showed the AP the 12-second voice mail from an NFL office which states the video had arrived saying, "You're right. It's Terrible." This article confronts the “he said, she said” argument over whether or not Roger Goodell and the NFL saw the inside elevator video back in April. Goodell continues to deny ever seeing the video footage.

Gloria Steinem says that if anything good has come from the Ray Rice domestic violence scandal, it is that people are actually talking about domestic violence.

"When the women's movement started, there was not even a term called domestic violence," the 80-year-old activist said in an interview. "It was just called life."

More than 7,000 fans showed up at M&T Bank Stadium to exchange their Ray Rice jerseys. This became a two day event for those who were at the end of the line while the stadium ran out of jerseys. It was reported that this was an orderly event with no protesting.

My feminist perspective makes me wonder if Baltimore fans are worrying about the wrong thing. Rather than exchanging their jersey's to make a statement, fans could have sold their jersey's and given the money to an organization focused on helping victims of domestic violence. The actual problem continues to be overlooked.

This NPR clip explains why the NFL Players Association is appealing the punishment for Ray Rice. The union argues that Rice didn't have his fair due process rights and that he is being punished twice for the same incident, a "Double Jeopardy" punishment. The NFL and the NFLPA now have two separate investigations in the Ray Rice case.

The Associated Press covers the beginnings of the Ray Rice case, saying that the courts treated Ray Rice more harshly compared to other domestic violence cases. Domestic violence cases become downgraded or dismissed when the accuser does not want to go ahead with charger, this is what happened in the case of Janay Rice. Ray Rice was placed into the pretrial intervention program. PTI allows suspects to avoid incarceration and keep their records clean if they meet the agreed-upon requirements.

"It looked like she was moving toward him to hit him or something," Hamel said. "He could have grabbed her, but he knocker her out."

This video is of the Rice's teammates reactions to the incident. Some say they will still be there to support Rice, and others express their disgust for the media in the situation. One player makes a good point saying Janay Rice's feelings are not being considered as the video of her being hit is playing over and over again on certain news outlets.

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