Now this pisses me off. I’m not a fan of domestic violence of course. Stupid that I even should feel the need to write that….but I don’t think the NFL was within its jurisdiction when it kicked Ray Rice out of the League due to the video of him battering going viral. First off, it violates the victims privacy, and if he’s tried and convicted in the media well, how will it help her to ruin the guy? You can’t get blood from a stone.

But here’s the thing….the NFL is being faulted for supposedly sanctioning such behavior and so they’re making a statement. But that statement doesn’t address the systemic problem: the players culture. These young men have more fame and money than they can possible handle, mixed with the gangsta image they’re all somehow driven to project off the field, with its drugs and firearms and objectification of women.

So Rice lost it in an elevator. Ya gotta wonder about that; any serial batterer would know better and keep his abusiveness behind closed doors. Seems to me there was more than the usual failure at impulse control going on…these people (yes both of them) need help.

But instead of humaner, cooler heads prevailing and dealing with any of that, the shame machine kicks into high gear, obscuring the real issues and leaving its bodies by the side of the road.. compounding the damage exponentially.