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IF WE HAVE TO TALK ABOUT THE NFL, CAN WE TALK ABOUT DOMESTIC ABUSE?

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Copy of NEW WEB HEAD TEMPLATE (1)

 

On January 18, two football teams whose players are paid millions of dollars went head to head in a game for their “owners,” who make millions of dollars off their teams by making them play a game that is proven to cause permanent brain damage and sometimes lead to suicide, and that despite those distinctions, is hailed as an American pastime and played by high school students nationwide.

 

What came out of that game (besides huge profits for already fat corporations!) is what you now know as Deflategate, as it was discovered that many of the balls used were not as turgid as they should have been. For the following week, and probably for weeks to come, media outlets across the country lit up to cover the scandal, which will likely dominate conversations until the Super Bowl is behind us.

 

“Deflategate,” when entered into Google, yields more than three times as many results as “domestic abuse NFL.” In one week, the league says they have already interviewed more than 40 people in relation to the debacle. Of the 48 players who were found guilty of domestic abuse under the NFL’s own policy between 2000 and 2014, most were either not punished or were only suspended for one game.

 

I have a hard time caring about a bunch of rich guys who subject themselves to bodily harm to make a bunch of other guys even richer. Sports (on this scale) can be over for all I care. But if we’re going to have our media dominated by coverage of where some air was not, at least be so kind to demand that this organization punish its members when they beat their wives and girlfriends. Sorry, I don’t have a “balls” pun for that.

 

EMILY HOPKINS

EMILY HOPKINS

Sustaining on a diet made up entirely of IPAs, angry letters and male tears, Emily Hopkins writes weekly under the column Free Radical and also sometimes brings you other stuff relating to social justice.