Contrary to popular belief, women actually do enjoy sports (and we also understand them!). We like watching football, we like getting excited about our team and we like the thrill of watching our favorite players perform their best. So when football players, such as Ray Rice, take acts of violence toward women, what are we to do?
It is obvious that it is a minority of players who commit acts of abuse against women in a league with hundreds of players. There are many players in the NFL who do not have a history of this type of violence, however, that does not make up for the fact that some players have actually committed serious crimes against women. What really matters is the reaction of the NFL to the actions of its players.
It was only after the video of Ray Rice knocking out his fiancé (now, his wife) that he received a suspension from the NFL. Prior to the video being made available to the public, he had only received a two-game suspension.
This tells us that the NFL did not consider the severity of the instance until it had the potential to make the organization look bad if they did not take further disciplinary action that would match the severity of the crime.
Once this act of violence became a public issue, the NFL decided that it was appropriate to take harsher action. This was not an effort to make a stance against violence toward women; it was an effort to hide their tail in between their legs and hope that no one got too angry about it – which people in turn did.
While Ray Rice is still seeking an appeal to the NFL’s suspension of him, the NFL’s season will still go on, and so must the fans of football, but not in a way that we forget how the NFL has reacted to violence against women.
In moving forward, female fans of football must make it apparent that tolerance of violence against women is not acceptable. So talk about it. Talk about how wrong violence toward women (from men of any social status or occupation) is. Talk about it with your female friends, your male friends, your little brother who loves football, your dad and literally anyone else because when attention is brought to situations like this, things are evidently forced to change.
Keep the conversation about violence against women alive. There is no guarantee that the NFL increasing the penalty for one person will stop all future violence against women in the NFL. However, if we keep talking about it and if we keep public attention on it, it will become apparent that people will not stand for this violence to continue.