The controversy surrounding NFL player Ray Rice is far from over. The former Baltimore Ravens player was captured on CCTV footage beating up his wife Janay in an elevator. His former team ended his contract which was a relief to many who were criticizing the NFL for not doing enough to prevent and punish this kind of behavior. Added to that came the news that his wife decided to publicly stand by his side and not leave, once again proving that domestic violence is a complicated issue that can’t be solved with a “one size fits all” approach.
Just recently the NFL commissioner Roger Goodall made news recently after he issued a mandate to all teams that the league would not be taking reports of violence from players lightly anymore, and that they would be implementing specific education programs to raise awareness of the greater implications of domestic violence. Roger Goodall also stated harsher punishments for repeat offenders, which made audiences have a little bit of hope in how the NFL is cracking down on this.
The recent Ravens Steelers football match was a closely watched one, to see if the rest of the remaining team members would be affected by the scandal surrounding their former colleague Ray Rice. On CBS Sports, broadcaster James Brown broke ranks for a few minutes to address the audience and give some insightful thoughts about domestic violence. The video has been dong the rounds on the internet, and for good reason.
Domestic violence within male-driven sports has long been a taboo topic because punishing a team’s star player can have mixed reviews. Pressure from audiences on teams and leagues has already increased with a much larger media awareness and information being shared far and wide. They cannot hide from it anymore, and James Brown really hit the nail on the head with his call out to other men to take stock of this issue.
“It starts with how we view women. Our language is important. For instance, when a guy says you throw the ball like a girl, or you a little sissy – it reflects an attitude that devalues women. And attitudes will eventually manifest in some fashion,” he said in the video below.
The focus on stories like this is usually on the most controversial aspect, and once the dust is settled it is easy to forget that there are many women (and men) who still have to deal with violence on a regular basis. James Brown wasn’t the only male sports broadcaster to issue some powerful thoughts on the scandal, however.
ESPN’s Stephen Smith said in an interview that women shouldn’t provoke men, which caused another level of hysteria among people closely following the story. However one person did jump to his defense, TV host Whoopi Goldberg. In a surprising statement, on her show ‘The View’ she seemed to agree with Stephen, saying that if a 4-foot-something woman hits a man, don’t expect him not to hit back.
It sent some of the other female panelists into a tizzy, which you can see in the video below. Her overall point was that no one should hit anyone, period. And that is something we definitely agree with. Violence is never a solution, nor is it a valid form of communication ever. We can see how it easily sounds like she is defending a bigger male perpetrator, but violence on anyone’s account should never be justified.
Former NFL player turned actor Terry Crews expressed his views on the case and the issue of domestic violence as he grew up in a household where his father regularly hit his mother. Like Janay Rice, Terry’s mother stayed with his dad.
“I used to watch my father hit my mother in the face and watch her go down and there was some things that just affected me more than I don’t think anyone could realize,” he said. And although he mentions Janay Rice’s decision to stay with Ray being a complicated one, he knows all too well that there is a bigger problem that she perhaps doesn’t want to delve into because it is too painful. Terry believes the NFL and sport culture which fosters a pack or gang mentality amongst male players has a lot to answer for.
“The NFL culture, the sports culture, has decided that they are more valuable than women. I’ve heard people laugh about keeping their pimp hand strong and keeping her in control so that she knows her place. But think about how evil that is for one man to think that he’s actually more valuable than a woman, because as a human being your worth is immeasurable.”
Whether Janay Rice hit her husband or not is not going to be the root of the issue, and nor does the story hinge on just her actions or whether she provoked him. The issue is that once a physical action has been dealt, it changes a situation drastically for worse.
Each of us has to take responsibility for how we act and react, which is what James Brown says. Stories of domestic violence in sports is an all too common occurrence so it has to be something that the media talks about openly, rather than just reporting the facts and making somewhat of a spectacle out of it.
Watch all three videos below and share your thoughts on the Ray Rice scandal.
This is such a bad deal. Stupid is just really hard to fix. This is not just a man’s problem it is a woman’s problem too. We women have a tendency to provoke by word or deed and men don’t always take it well. Both of us need help in this area. I have to wonder if losing everything Ray has worked for will just make matters worse? There is no quick fix for this. The song “Respect” comes to mind. We all need to be kind to one another and stop these bulling tactics. Wish I had an answer for this mess, but I do know one thing the media is not always our friend!!