It’s Not Just Ray Rice: Dave Zirin on the NFL’s History of Condoning Domestic Abuse

[niyad]

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But that being said, to call this, quote-unquote, "the biggest black eye" in NFL history, unfortunate phrasing aside for a domestic violence incident, it’s really shameful for him to say that, because the NFL has a history of horrific moments of violence against women, cases of serial rape, cases of murder. I mean, just two years ago, a player for the Kansas City Chiefs killed the mother of his child, Kasandra Perkins, and then took his own life in front of his coach in the parking lot of the stadium. Yet that’s not the biggest black eye in NFL history? So what makes this, in Adam Schefter’s eye, so much worse? It’s because it was caught on videotape, and it is a public relations crisis for the National Football League.

As long as we look at this through the lens of public relations, we’re never going to get to the bottom of this issue, which is, how do you deal with the fact that you have an incredibly violent game that causes head injuries, that causes all kinds of financial pressure on families that tend to come from poverty, and then how do you deal with it when that violence spills over into the personal lives and families of players? The NFL, for decades, has treated it as something that you push under the rug, yet in an era where everybody has phones, everything is digital, video cameras everywhere, that is much, much more difficult to do.

AMY GOODMAN: Dave, San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Ray McDonald was arrested August 31st on felony domestic violence charges in San Jose. Despite the arrest, he started in the 49ers opening game on Sunday. The team is coached by Jim Harbaugh, the brother of Ravens coach John Harbaugh. Can you talk about this—the two brothers, the Ravens, the 49ers, the two Rays, Ray McDonald and Ray Rice?

DAVE ZIRIN: Yeah. I mean, a lot of symmetry at work there. Jim Harbaugh, interestingly enough, is somebody who for a long time has had—I’ve talked to people who are involved in that organization—who has said to players that violence against women is the one thing that he will never tolerate on this team. He has said that to players in closed-door meetings. It’s something that he apparently believes very strongly. Although if people know Jim Harbaugh, you’ll know that he phrases those kinds of declarations with the same kind of masculinist, patriarchal verve that unfortunately so too often colors how people respond to domestic violence, as if you have to have, you know, a much more manly approach to it and that’s the only way you’re going to actually squelch it. And that’s how Jim Harbaugh has approached it. Yet, unfortunately, even though Jim Harbaugh has had that rhetoric for so long, there was Ray McDonald on the field of play in San Francisco.

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http://www.democracynow.org/2014/9/9/its_not_just_ray_rice_dave

[libodem]

1. It's in many institutions

And places like police forces. I heard that butchers have a particularly high rate of DV as a profession. Anger control is a necessary social skill. And families need guidance if they haven had a good example set for them by the previous generation.

All big guys are not necessarily the gentle giants we stereotype them to be.