Questions about the NFL’s morality miss an important point. The NFL doesn’t really have any, because all it cares about is revenue and image.
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The recent scandals plaguing the National Football League have raised a lot of questions about the organization’s morality, or lack therefore of. And while I’d agree that these conversations are important, I’ve noticed that underlying most of them is the assumption that the NFL as an organization is based in some sort of moral framework. And while maybe it or sports institutions in general should be, it’s pretty clear that the NFL is not
Consider the recent case of Ray Rice who was recently suspended indefinitely from the NFL after TMZ released security footage of him knocking his then girlfriend (now wife) unconscious. Is this evidence of an organization responding to Rice’s brutal attack in shock and outrage? Not really, after all the NFL new of about this in July and back then it only suspended him for two games. It was only after the video surfaced, went viral online, and thus threatened the NFL’s image that Rice was for all intents and purposes banned for life.
Or consider the more recent revelations about the Minnesota Vikings’ Adrian Peterson who was recently benched for one game, before being reinstated and then benched again, after he was indicted by a Texas grand jury for felony child abuse and endangerment after allegedly beating his son with a stick. I don’t know which of these offenses are worse, but it’s pretty clear that the NFL’s punishments for doing horrible things aren’t exactly uniform.
And just look at the NFL’s handling of the issue of brain damage being caused by the sport. As reported in The New York Times this weekend:
The National Football League, which for years disputed evidence that its players had a high rate of severe brain damage, has stated in federal court documents that it expects nearly a third of retired players to develop long-term cognitive problems and that the conditions are likely to emerge at “notably younger ages” than in the general population.
So after saying (for years!) that everything is fine, now that the league has been dragged in to court it acknowledges one out of three players are being affected by these issues.
These are not the actions of an organization interested in promoting or maintaining a sense of public morality or ethics. These are the actions of a powerful organization, owned and controlled by billionaires, protecting its fiduciary interests at all costs. And just look at the media and legal tactics they employ! From fake shock and outrage to stonewall denial that would make the tobacco industry proud, the NFL will do whatever it takes not to do “what’s right” in terms of public morality or decency, but to as Commissioner Roger Goodell puts it “protect the shield.” That is do whatever it takes to protect the NFL’s standing, image, and interests.
The political point here I think here is clear. We should stop treating the NFL like something other than what it is: a gigantic for profit corporation interested, at the end of the day, in its bottom line. So we shouldn’t ask the NFL to regulate itself any more than we’d ask the coal industry to regulate itself with regards the environmental issues or the safety of its miners. And we shouldn’t ask the NFL to provide role models for our sons any more than we’d ask Wall Street or Walmart to.
Instead we should simply acknowledge it for the sports and entertainment juggernaut that it is. Nothing more, and nothing less. And the the last thing we should do is look to it for answers, as it simply isn’t interested in providing them, other than to tell you the best way to spend your Sundays of course.
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AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
I do think think you can compare hitting a woman to disciplining your child in a way you were. The way Peterson was raised is how he is raising his kids. I have nothing but respect for my parents and grandparents who switched me.