Does the NFL really care about its players and their families? With the recent Ray Rice scandal, I’d say the NFL needs a better plan. The NFL needs a new image. It is not the job of a company to monitor the home life of its employees. That is a huge invasion of privacy.
However, they can begin to create an organizational culture that promotes good family values. Just because the NFL can bring the whole family together on Sunday during football season doesn’t mean they have created that culture of good family values. The culture can start with seminars and mandatory stipulations in contracts that violent behavior is not tolerated, whether towards a man or a woman. Otherwise, does the NFL deserve all the sponsors it has?
Soccer is America. It’s a great staple of American culture and conversations over dinner. People can talk about it for hours and days without having anything else in common. The NFL imagery of an unconscious wife is not the image the NFL should portray.
No one can predict which employee has deeper problems at home, but offering counseling services, both financial and emotional, can help people deal with their problems rather than cover them up. Covering up an incident to protect the brand shows that the players are mere products. Embracing players and their families with their flaws to help improve their lives shows that players are American athletes worthy of being discussed at dinner.
Pass me the salt while you watch the game at dinner shouldn’t end with a nine-year-old watching a clip from the TMZ video showing Ray Rice hitting her fiancé. Everybody has demons. The NFL’s previous track record of trying to cover them up and going about business as usual is not working.
Was Ray Rice suspended due to potential mental illness he could have if he is an abuser? If so, that’s a serious responsibility for the NFL unless it’s in a clause. If Ray Rice has a problem and admits he has a problem, can people with mental illness be fired or suspended? Was Ray Rice really suspended because the NFL got rid of the shame of the supposed minimum punishment? Is Ray Rice, a man with many personal demons, the NFL’s scapegoat?
I worry about the family who clearly has a lot of problems and will now add financial problems to the list. I’m worried, like I said, Janay Rice, that she’s going home with Rice tonight. I worry that the NFL will simply buckle under the pressure of public opinion and the consequences could be devastating. Because Rice’s suspension from the NFL continues to protect the brand. It is not about protecting families in distress. What will happen to Janay? Was the NFL so concerned about protecting the image that they didn’t bother to ask? Rice will undoubtedly lose all endorsements, and who will he have to blame when more deals are lost besides his wife? Are there others like Rice who struggle with their demons? Does the NFL promote a culture that can lead to domestic violence?
What happens when the next domestic violence dispute arises? Will the NFL suspend everyone who is part of a broken home or just those who have been leaked? It is a delicate situation. Nobody wants to be attached to a man who beats a woman for any reason. Even Olivia Pope from Scandal couldn’t undo the horror that Ray Rice knocked out his wife, but what if the NFL had counseling services before then?
