Dear Commissioner Goodell,
They say football is a spectator sport. And boy, have I been doing some spectating.
I can tell you that while the New York Giants are deemed the worst team in the NFL, there has never been anyone who revolutionized the linebacker position the way Lawrence Taylor did. I can tell you that Lawrence Taylor was the best defensive player of his generation.
I can also tell you that I’ve bled blue for the last 22 years. I can tell you that in light of recent events, bleeding blue now makes me nothing more than a statistic in Mitt Romney’s ‘binder full of women.’
You’ve fumbled in the past. Your modern-day gladiators, more famously known as players, are responsible for 84 domestic violence arrests in the past 14 years. There are currently 12 players—13 if you include Jovan Belcher—suiting up for games as they face domestic violence charges from the past or present.
The NFL has not lost its way. Rather, this is the NFL’s way. Your current downhill spiral is not because Ray Rice’s or Adrian Peterson’s or even Jonathan Dwyer’s attitudes manifested into violence.
The ultimate demise is a result of the overall violence against women that flows out of the gender caricatures that the NFL feeds off on a daily basis. The male-dominated enclave flags women as nothing more than sparse and insignificant. Like in Romney’s binders, we are nothing more than marginal.
So while all of America looks for you and your hiearchy of hypocrites to step down, I don’t.
In fact, I hope you sit down at your dinner table tonight with your wife and twin daughters. I hope you have to explain to your girls why Rihanna is publicly bashing you; why some football players beat up women and are still eligible to play on game day. (These abused women are daughters just like yours.)
Regardless of what questions your family may ask, I hope someone gets the answers on tape.
So don’t worry, Commissioner Goodell, since you will more than likely keep your job. I will more than likely keep you in my prayers.
Best,
Brittany L. Romano