News from the Gridiron: For the Average Joe

Run­ning Backs Fought the Law and the Law Won 

This has been a very strange week for sports. Mul­ti­ple play­ers have been deac­ti­vat­ed, sus­pend­ed, rein­stat­ed, and even indict­ed on cas­es relat­ed to domes­tic vio­lence. Just when it seems like every­thing is under con­trol, anoth­er case pops up.

Rice Can’t Play Nice 

The Bal­ti­more Ravens run­ning back, Ray Rice has been the talk of the coun­try since sur­veil­lance footage showed Rice drag­ging his uncon­scious (now) wife’s body out of an ele­va­tor in Atlantic City. Rice was only sus­pend­ed two games by the NFL for the incident.

The NFL did not step down on Rice until TMZ  released anoth­er video on Sept. 8th show­ing Rice knock­ing his wife uncon­scious. It was only then that the NFL felt the pres­sure to sus­pend Rice indefinitely.

NFL takes hit­ting the blunt more seri­ous­ly than hit­ting women.

NFL com­mis­sion­er Roger Good­ell took almost as much heat as Rice did dur­ing the con­tro­ver­sy. Good­ell only sus­pend­ed Rice for two games while he sus­pend­ed Browns wide receiv­er Josh Gor­don for the entire sea­son for smok­ing mar­i­jua­na. Fans every­where found this jus­tice out­ra­geous and have been call­ing for Good­el­l’s res­ig­na­tion ever since.

The cries got even loud­er when sources close to the NFL said Good­ell nev­er asked for the ele­va­tor tape even though he knew it exist­ed. It was quite clear that the NFL did not con­duct a thor­ough inves­ti­ga­tion in the Ray Rice case. But thanks to all the crimes that have been com­mit­ted late­ly by NFL play­ers, the league will have plen­ty of chances to redeem themselves.

Run­ning Backs Con­tin­ue to Run from the Law

Rice was not the only run­ning back that had his face plas­tered on prime time this week. The Min­neso­ta Vikings’ star run­ning back Adri­an Peter­son was indict­ed on child abuse charges on Fri­day, Sept. 12. The New York Times report­ed Peter­son is accused of hit­ting his four-year old son with a switch, leav­ing severe cuts and bruis­es all over his body.

Peter­son was deac­ti­vat­ed from last Sun­day’s game against the New Eng­land Patri­ots, only to be reac­ti­vat­ed on Mon­day. How­ev­er the rein­state­ment did not last long. Some text mes­sages between Peter­son and his ex-wife were leaked to the press. The mes­sages linked Peter­son to abus­ing anoth­er one of his sons in a car.

Peter­son has since been barred from all team facil­i­ties dur­ing his “paid leave.” Peter­son will be sit­ting at home, mak­ing $12 mil­lion while he awaits trial.

The “Run” of Vio­lence Continues

I do not know what is up with all these angry run­ning backs in the NFL. There seems to be a trend devel­op­ing. A third run­ning back, Jonathan Dwyer of the Ari­zona Car­di­nals, was arrest­ed on Wednes­day in Phoenix for domes­tic abuse.

Police said that Dwyer was charged with one count of aggra­vat­ed assault, one count of aggra­vat­ed assault of a minor, and two counts of crim­i­nal dam­age. The two alleged vic­tims were a 27-year old woman and a 18-month-old child.

The Car­di­nals have deac­ti­vat­ed Dwyer, fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of the Ravens and Vikings.