    One of the most overlooked issues in America is domestic violence. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, domestic violence is when a male or female is in a relationship and they have a violent or aggressive behavior in their home with their partner or spouse. In the United States, on average, someone is abused by their partner or spouse every 20 minutes, and 1 out of 3 women are victims of domestic violence in their lifetime (National Coalition). One big organization that needs to address this problem is the N.F.L. For example, OJ Simpson was blamed for beating and murdering his wife but it was overlooked because he was a star. The N.F.L tried to do all they could do to put a stop to the problem but it still continues to happen today. It seems like domestic violence and the N.F.L players committing this crime are always in the news; however, the cases are not getting prosecuted because the players are stars. Fans seem to think football players cannot do anything wrong because they are good at football. The best example of this is the Ray Rice case. When the close up footage of Rice hitting his now-wife came out everybody demanded something be done. N.F.L policies always tried to prevent domestic violence but the policies did not stop it. The N.F.L did not follow their own policy about domestic violence until the fans started to put pressure on the commissioner to punish the abuser. This essay argues the N.F.L needs to have a better policy on abuse, to discipline their players, and valuing their profit more than the wellbeing of the victims.    

            Domestic violence has always been a problem in the N.F.L but during the 1990’s OJ Simpson, Warren Moon and others caused the N.F.L to look more closely at the personal conduct policies. During the 1990s people questioned the N.F.L about domestic violence and the right the commissioner had to punish players’ behavior off the field. According to the Harvard Law Review the three reasons why the commissioner could make a policy on domestic violence is because athletes are more likely to commit domestic violence. The policy would protect the image of the game and policies would match the current law (1050). The best reason to make this policy is to protect the players’ reputations but also the N.F.Ls’ reputation. Also in the Harvard Law Review it says the improper conduct of players off the field is putting the future success of the league in jeopardy and the league has the right to make a policy for it because of this (1065). Abusers hurt the image of the game so the commissioner should have come up with a policy for domestic violence because it could have prevented the future victims like Ray Rice’s now-wife. According to Jefferson, no evidence exists that players committing the crimes like domestic violence are hurting the business of the N.F.L, however these players are supposed to be role models (369). The N.F.L will not lose money, but they will lose their reputation if they continue to let their players think they are above the law. The N.F.L doesn’t care about letting abusers play because there is no evidence showing that they are hurting the TV ratings.

            While the N.F.L is picking and choosing the cases they take seriously, their conduct policy goes for everybody that signed the agreement. The N.F.L Personal Conduct Policy says

Persons who fail to live up to this standard of conduct are guilty of conduct detrimental and subject to discipline, even where the conduct itself does not result in conviction of a crime. Discipline may be imposed in any of the following circumstances: Criminal offenses including, but not limited to, those involving: the use or threat of violence; domestic violence and other forms of partner abuse (Personal Conduct Policy 1).  

The N.F.L has the right to punish players even if they have not committed a crime or hurt the N.F.L’s success in any way. The personal conduct policy states the commissioner has the right to take action into his own hands before the abuser is convicted or charged. Domestic violence is on the list of policies that the league can punish its players for but the N.F.L is not doing anything about the abusers. That is, until TMZ released videos of N.F.L players breaking the league’s personal conduct policy. Several times I have seen the commissioner only give players a one game suspension for hitting their wives or girlfriends. Roger Goodell is the current commissioner for the N.F.L and he could take more action but he has not so far. 

The most famous case that went unpunished was the Ray Rice case. Rice was an N.F.L star that was playing for the Baltimore Ravens and he was known for his short, stocky, powerful body.  One-night Rice and his now-wife were going up to their hotel room after coming from a casino. In the video that TMZ released it showed Rice and his now-wife before they entered the elevator. You could tell they had been going back and forth at each other. Rice’s now-wife took a couple blows at Rice. Rice then made the dumbest choice in his life, he cocked back and punched his now-wife in the jaw, knocking her out cold. Rumors spread around Sports Center, so the N.F.L did what they always do which was suspend Rice for one game. Then the disgusting video of Rice punching his wife came out and it went global. Rice did not only punch his now-wife in the jaw, knocking her out cold, but dragged her out of the elevator, almost like she was dead. The league did not pay enough attention because they were trying to protect Rice and his future. After TMZ released the video of Rice hitting his now-wife the video caused outrage in the fans of the N.F.L. In July the N.F.L Commissioner Roger Goodell gave Rice a two game suspension and it caused a lot of criticism (Natta and Valkenburg). It took the fans being upset at the commissioner for the commissioner to go and make a big decision to kick Rice out of the N.F.L. The N.F.L did not care about the domestic violence but they were more worried about their reputation and how the fans looked at the N.F.L.

After the Ray Rice case in 2014 the N.F.L updated their Personal Conduct Policy because they wanted to cut back domestic violence. The new policy for domestic violence says that the first time a player commits domestic violence, assault, battery or any kind of physical abuse they will get a minimum six game suspension and if a player repeats their actions they will be kicked out of the N.F.L (Personal Conduct Policy). The punishment of Josh Brown, however, demonstrates how seriously they took domestic violence. They only gave him a one game suspension without pay after he hit his pregnant wife. Brown was a kicker for the New York Giants and he was arrested for hitting his wife over 24 times. Brown served a one game suspension without pay because he broke the N.F.L’s Personal Conduct Policy. Brown was not cut from the team or suspended for more games. When all the information on the Josh Brown case came out, the world was shocked that the N.F.L continually let this man play. This shows again that the N.F.L made the policy just to make the fans happy after the Rice case and they are not going to follow it because they care more about the money than the domestic violence problem. `  

The N.F.L repeatedly failed to apply their domestic violence policy because they are not trying to find more information about the situations. The N.F.L said they sent investigators to find out about the Josh Brown case but the Sheriff in charge of Brown’s case said the N.F.L never asked for the Brown records (Macur). In the Ray Rice case they did the same thing by not trying to get all of the evidence. According to Don Van Natta Jr. and Kevin Van Valkenburg, “…the league made only a token effort to obtain the inside-elevator video that was clearly the most critical piece of evidence.” In the two cases the N.F.L clearly tried to avoid the evidence because they did not think it was that serious. This shows that the N.F.L did not care enough to try to get more evidence until they were put under pressure by the fans of the league.

I have been playing football for as long as I can remember and hoping to go to the N.F.L but the way domestic violence has been looked at made pro football players seem violent. When I was young I thought the N.F.L players were all role models.  Now that I am older and have a better understanding of things, I understand that the N.F.L has a lot of problems with bad character players. Maybe the players that are abusing their wife or girlfriend do not know how to act or are not getting the right punishment for their actions. I was raised to respect women at all cost even though they are calling me names or throwing punches at me. If I was the commissioner of the N.F.L, I would put a stop to the domestic violence. I would make a clear and straight policy about domestic violence like the drugs policies. The N.F.L seems to care more about drugs that the players take in than a human being getting mistreated at home. For example, the punishments for drugs is rehab for 90 days the first time a player is tested positive for any drugs (Pelissero). The N.F.L got these strict policies for keeping drugs out of the N.F.L and they seem to work because there haven’t been a lot of drug problems in the N.F.L. The commissioner has tried to put a stop to domestic violence but it does not seem to work because he does not focus on the survivors (Brown 6). The commissioner could use his power, make stricter rules and make the players pay large amounts of money to the victims. The commissioner should give the players two strikes on domestic violence because I believe everybody deserves a second chance. I believe that the N.F.L is trying to make the right step to get the job done by stopping the domestic violence; however, their rules and polices are not always clear.         

The N.F.L can set the bar for the world by giving their players real punishments for domestic violence and other major league sports are probably going to push more on domestic violence because the N.F.L is the trendsetter. Joel Micheal Ugolini said that the N.F.L is held to a higher standard and they need to be at the forefront of the improvement of personal conduct for the players (58). If the N.F.L keeps giving small punishments for big problems, then the N.F.L is probably going to lose a lot of fans and their reputation will not be worth anything. In the big cases like Rice and Brown’s, the N.F.L showed us that they did not care enough to get all of the evidence and punish their players. The Rice case made the fans furious with the commissioner and the policies, so the commissioner tried to change the culture of domestic violence by changing the policies and making the policies stricter. It took the fans making a big fuss about Ray Rice to punish him the right way. If the N.F.L cared about domestic violence they would follow their policies and punish the players for their terrible decisions. The N.F.L has shown that they do not care about domestic violence until the fans start to put pressure on the commissioner to punish the abuser.

 