Ray Rice has put the NFL in the challenging position of supporting its players while at the same time listening to fans. The league continues to move slowly on major issues regarding players’ actions off the field. (Photo Courtesy of Wallstreethotrod/Wikimedia Commons)
Amid controversy over NFL policies regarding abuse charges, little seems to have changed in the past two weeks. With Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson as fresh examples representing a mass of others in football and other sports, CUIndependent.com sports editors Andrew Haubner and Jordyn Siemens discuss whether athletes will continue to float above the law.
Andrew: Despite last week’s outrage, we haven’t seen progressive action.
So I’m officially one week removed for the NFL, and it looks like I’ll be away from the TV next Sunday as well. While the deactivation of Adrian Peterson from the Minnesota Vikings roster seemed like a welcome change amid allegations of child abuse, it is still abundantly clear that the league is content to sit on its hands and let teams do the dirty work. But the teams aren’t even getting it right. Just look at the San Francisco 49ers and their handling of defensive end Ray McDonald.
McDonald is currently involved in an ongoing case of suspected assault against his wife, who is 10 weeks into her pregnancy. While the allegations were brought about after the NFL’s newly-instated assault rule (six games for the first offense, lifetime ban for the second), McDonald played last Sunday. Yesterday, 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh stated the team wouldn’t make a snap decision for McDonald, who has yet to face any type of disciplinary action. This of course being all the more ridiculous given the 49ers suspension of commentator Ted Robinson for COMMENTING on the Ray Rice case in an unflattering light. You have a man who was arrested on suspicion of domestic abuse, and yet you suspend a broadcaster who talks about the situation in a politically incorrect way? OK.
While the league talks about their moral code and their desire for role-model type players, they have done nothing to amend that image and will continue to do nothing. Sponsors have expressed concerns, some have even pulled away from athletes such as Adrian Peterson and Ray Rice, but in the end it doesn’t change the minds of many people who tune in on Sundays.
Jordyn: Change won’t come quickly, but it will come.
Although it’s regrettable, an institution such as the NFL is not going to change in only a week. Policies that divert from the path of least resistance will be drafted by true reformers, who are few and far between. We get it – no one working for the league wants “defying a superior” to be their cause for termination, but this generation’s dissenting attitude toward abuse is spreading, and as much as NFL officials would prefer to adhere to the status quo and let the storm pass, they can’t run their businesses, or profit, if they lose customers.
The YouGov BrandIndex measures daily brand consumer perception. On September 12th, the NFL’s “buzz” score sat at -17, which aggressively counters the year-long high of 36 recorded the day Ray Rice’s elevator video surfaced.
We’ll take your initial reaction to the Ray Rice situation as another example, Andrew. You, in boycotting the NFL, represented a generational opinion that violence is not acceptable to gain control in an intimate relationship such as that of Ray and Janay Rice. That opinion is also more widespread than you might think – just take note of the comments thread beneath the piece and their geographic sources.
An institution’s inner logic is naturally based in survival, which essentially translates to creating policies that make sense not only to authoritative bodies but to fans as well. The fact of the matter is that passively looking over domestic violence and child abuse cases no longer makes sense to America. Does abuse still happen to 1.3 million women per year? Yes. But it doesn’t mean that the majority of lovers, parents and football fans believe in or condone such actions.
Andrew: But is it really working?
Yes, I chose to boycott the NFL and I still plan on doing so, but I don’t represent the greater population. Even after everything that happened last week, the viewership for Sunday Night Football was through the roof: a whopping 22.2 million people. The top three programs for last week? Sunday Night Football, Thursday Night Football and Monday Night Football. News and sports media can be as politically correct as they want, but the general populous has proven to be wildly divided on the issues at hand, especially in the case of Adrian Peterson. Fans of teams are quick to come to the defense of their players, and the pack mentality that the NFL endorses will always remain.
Wednesday morning, the Minnesota Vikings simply reversed course in their handling of the Peterson situation, banning him from all team activities. To many, that is enough to think that the NFL and the Vikings got it right, and that they are now free from criticism as the rest of this saga unfolds.
While teams individually get to wash their hands of this problem, the NFL as an organization continues to twiddle its thumbs and hides under the banner of being a morally centered NPO. Roger Goodell, whom I believe is at the center of this issue, is keeping his mouth shut while making $44.2 million yearly. He reflects the NFL owners’ “pay-for-performance” attitude. The league generates roughly $10 billion annually, and 23 of the 32 teams are valued at over $1 billion, while all 32 are deemed profitable. A few coalitions and people upset aren’t really going to put a dent in that massive money stream.
At the end of the day, the NFL is still a business, and a business that can survive even by mishandling scandals and showing general incompetence.
Jordyn: The NFL’s cases are waking us up, not promoting cynicism
Call me an optimist, but Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson only boosted the efforts of anti-abuse systems nationwide, from the National Coalition against Domestic Violence to the Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence here in Boulder County. As terrible as these crimes were, they added fuel to the fire within true reformers’ hearts.
Let’s go back to the generalized psyche of an institution. One as prominent as the National Football League can bank on groupthink in times of controversy. Fans desire harmony and conformity within their team-based communities, and will mentally move with the crowd despite any irrational or dysfunctional results. Cynics base their arguments in supposed fan-logic that goes something like “Adrian Peterson plays for the Vikings; I love the Vikings; I blindly support Adrian Peterson.” This argument is obviously fallacious, and they aren’t the only ones who see that.
Groupthink works against the NFL, too. In 2014, opposing abusive behavior is not going against the grain. No one accepts it. Not one positive article has been written about this issue since it flooded the Internet and social media last week. No one would dare support his or Adrian Peterson’s actions publicly. Why? Because abuse is wrong and everyone knows it. The NFL woke us up to the fact that it still happens, and re-booted any dormant efforts toward its eradication. For that, I am hopeful.
Contact CU Independent Assistant Sports Editor Andrew Haubner at andrew.haubner@colorado.edu.
Contact CU Independent Sports Editor Jordyn Siemens at jordyn.siemens@colorado.edu.
