A different point of view of Goodell’s actions.
Richie Incognito, an All-Pro offensive lineman, was branded a thug, faced countless hours of interrogation by league officials and their lawyers, and now can’t get a job in the NFL because he was found guilty of “bullying” a fellow lineman of equal size and strength.
Ray Rice, an All-Pro running back, was suspended for a mere two games, faced no similar league inquisition, and was heralded by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as a decent guy who made a simple “mistake” when he was caught on video dragging his unconscious fiancée out of the elevator after what appeared to be a physical altercation.
Welcome to political correctness, Goodell-style.
By now people who follow football (and many people who don’t) know that Rice, a Baltimore Ravens star, has been fired by his team and suspended indefinitely from the league by Goodell.
But Goodell’s “bold” move came only after a second video surfaced showing what had obviously transpired before the dragging incident — Rice sending a cold clock to his wife’s jaw – a punch, I might add, that would have put most men, not just a woman half his weight, down for the count. (A law-enforcement official also told AP today that the NFL had received the more violent video, though the NFL denies that it saw the video and claims to have sought out such information.)
The obvious question being asked of Goodell: Why did it take the publication of the second video for him to do what needed to be done and kick this thug out of the game? He’s still trying to come up with a coherent answer.
Another obvious question: Why did Goodell initially throw his support behind Rice after an obvious physical altercation with a woman but throw the book at Incognito for name-calling a 300-pound fellow lineman?
I don’t expect Goddell to answer that question (an NFL spokesman didn’t return a telephone call or e-mail for comment). Nor do I expect the gentle souls in the media to raise it either. That’s because to do so would be to own up to the obvious fact that the scourge of “bullying” (which used to be called “name calling”), in our ever more politically correct world, has been deemed a worse offense than even physically abusing a woman.
Some words are more dangerous than some violent actions, according to the PC police.