THE RICE AFFAIR...

We are all familiar now with the Ray Rice affair where a video showed him punching out his then fiancé and now wife Janay Rice in an elevator and then dragging her body out of the elevator. 

Today, this story has become THE story.

This would not have even been a story except for a TV show called TMZ which specializes in digging up stuff on celebrities.

The fact that in today’s world nothing is private with cameras and recorders everywhere is troubling on a number of levels…

No one will condone violence against women in any form and everyone will admit that violence against women is a growing problem that needs to be addressed more forcefully with better protections offered to women in an abusive relationship.

In my experience, when a man hits a woman, he will do it again and again even though he swears it will never happen again. It is best for the female to end the relationship after the first beating even though many women will not or cannot end the relationship and just suffer as battered wives.

That being said, the fact of the matter is that Janay Rice did not file a criminal complaint, in fact she went ahead and married the guy that punched her; they have a child together.

When the Ravens management and the NFL (National Football League) commissioner saw the video of Rice dragging her body out of the elevator they felt compelled to suspend him for two games and when they saw the video of him knocking her out in the elevator, they fired him and the NFL commissioner went ahead and suspended him indefinitely from ever playing football anywhere…really?

Janay Rice came out forcefully against all those do-gooders trying to protect her when she did not ask for protection and in fact ruining her life and that of her husband and daughter since now all those millions he was going to earn as a star running back have vanished; what other job is he suited for.

This whole case has been handled very badly on a number of levels.

First, no criminal charges have been filed so there is no basis for the NFL to punish someone as if a crime has been committed.

My wife disagrees vehemently on this point but as a former business owner with many employees, I told her that I could control behavior at work but could not control behavior outside of work and especially behavior in the privacy of one’s own home unless it had some direct impact on the performance of one’s job like alcoholism or drug use.

Secondly, what ever happened to someone making a bad choice, repenting and being given another chance at straightening their life out; Rice was banned from football based on a video, no trial, no jury judgment, no prior record of abuse, just media pressure.

I realize that the NFL has an image they would like to maintain but to pretend that all football players are boy scouts is unrealistic and plain stupid.

As a society, we are just starting to get used to this new high tech age where nothing is private and everything can be videotaped or voice recorded for instant public distribution and judgment. This is not always a good thing and many good lives could be ruined by a momentary lapse in judgment.

I think the NFL commissioner should only concern himself with player behavior only as it impacts their performance on the field.

I also think that people that are celebrities or semi-celebrities or even people in general should be aware that they are on candid camera…all the time…and should act accordingly.