Erica Allen

CMST 102
Professor Jason Lind
February 23, 2015
Assignment:

Discussion Facilitator Report

Topic:

Domestic Violence & the NFL

Please take a few minutes to read the follow article by Bill Pennington and Steve
Eder, Titled In Domestic Violence Cases, N.F.L. Has a History of Lenience.
Then answer the questions included at the end of the report on Moodle.

In Domestic Violence Cases, N.F.L. Has a History of Lenience

By BILL PENNINGTON and STEVE EDER
On April 10, 2007, after more than 50 National Football League players had been arrested in the previous
football season, Commissioner Roger Goodell was widely hailed for instituting a newly stringent personal
conduct policy. Mr. Goodell threatened to banish players for off-the-field transgressions and installed
himself as the judge and jury presiding over every case.
Mr. Goodell insisted that he would mete out discipline without waiting for the judicial system. It is my
job not law enforcements job to protect the National Football League, he said at the time. But in
his role as the N.F.L.s hard-bitten sheriff, Mr. Goodell appears to have had a major blind spot: domestic
violence cases. Players charged with domestic violence routinely received considerably lighter
punishments than players accused of other offenses, like drug use or drunken driving. Often, they were
not punished at all. On Friday, seven years after he implemented the personal conduct policy, Mr. Goodell
acknowledged publicly that it had failed and would be overhauled.
We should have had the personal conduct policy reviewed more frequently, to make the changes
necessary to deal with the issues that have changed, he said at a news conference in which he announced
that outside experts would help the league devise a new system for handling domestic violence cases. An
examination of dozens of arrests of N.F.L. players since Mr. Goodell established his personal conduct
policy in 2007 and the fines and penalties doled out by the league shows that suspensions of two to
four games, and sometimes more, were far more likely for players arrested on drunken driving, marijuana
possession or weapon charges. A vast majority of players charged with domestic violence crimes, if they
were disciplined by the league at all, received one-game suspensions even after pleading guilty to lesser
related charges or entering pretrial intervention programs. The disparity in punishments within the league
is illustrated in numerous cases. On Nov. 25, 2011, for example, Green Bay Packers linebacker Erik
Walden was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his live-in girlfriend. The charge was reduced to
disorderly conduct and then dismissed after Walden agreed to perform 50 hours of community service and
receive counseling. The N.F.L. suspended Walden for one game. Less than two months earlier, the police
seized two and a half pounds of marijuana sent to the home of Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Jerome
Simpson. The league suspended Simpson for three games. I dont think the N.F.L. did anything more
than give lip service to the notion that they were taking domestic abuse seriously, said Ann DeLaney, an

advocate for victims of domestic violence and the former executive director of the Julian Center in
Indianapolis, a victim support group.
Referring to the Ray Rice case, Ms. DeLaney continued, Thats what they did this time until it was
caught on video. Mr. Rice, then a Baltimore Ravens running back, was suspended for only two
games after being accused of assaulting his fiance, Janay Palmer, in February; Ms. Palmer is now
married to Mr. Rice. After a firestorm of criticism that the punishment was inadequate, Mr. Goodell
increased the leagues minimum suspension for a first-time domestic violence offense to six games. After
a video surfaced of Mr. Rice knocking out Ms. Palmer in a hotel elevator, Mr. Goodell suspended Mr.
Rice indefinitely.
Some of the cases drew criticism at the time, but the recent high-profile episodes have led to a firestorm
of protest from inside and outside football. Tyrone Thomas, a Washington lawyer who advises on sports
cases, said the N.F.L. had always had the power to take a tougher tack in instances in which there were
accusations of domestic violence, but had chosen not to. Mr. Thomas said that the N.F.L. had treated
domestic violence as a back-burner concern, and that punishing players caught doping or driving under
the influence had been a higher priority. There certainly could have been a harsher interpretation of
certain standards, Mr. Thomas said.
In multiple cases since 2007, the N.F.L.s response to domestic violence arrests appeared arbitrary. Within
the first year of the personal conduct policy, the contrast in the handling of different cases was on display
when three members of the Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najeh Davenport, linebacker James
Harrison and wide receiver Cedrick Wilson were accused in domestic violence cases, according to
news reports at the time. Mr. Davenport, who was accused during the season, was never suspended and
was acquitted after a trial that took place after the season. Mr. Harrison, a star and an important player
during the Steelers run to the Super Bowl after the 2008 season, also was not suspended. But Mr. Wilson,
a lesser-known player, was dropped from the team within hours of his arrest, and he never played in the
N.F.L. again.
During the last seven years, when a domestic abuse arrest involved a player who was not a starter or a
major contributor to the team, the player was sometimes released by his team. In those cases, the league
would not have had to consider a suspension. Mr. Harrisons agent, William Parise, said the league had
made the right call with Mr. Harrison. There was never anything there, Mr. Parise said. He did not
strike her or do anything like that. He didnt press charges. She didnt press charges. And the league
dropped the whole thing.
In one of the higher-profile cases, Brandon Marshall, a wide receiver with the Denver Broncos at the
time, was initially suspended for three games over events that included his being arrested on charges of
assaulting his girlfriend. But his suspension was later reduced to one game.
In 2010, Tony McDaniel, a defensive lineman for the Miami Dolphins, was suspended for one game for
violating the leagues personal conduct policy after he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of
disorderly conduct after a domestic dispute with his live-in girlfriend, according to The Sun-Sentinel
newspaper in South Florida. He was sentenced to probation and ordered to attend counseling.
In another case in 2008, Michael Boley, a linebacker with the Atlanta Falcons at the time, was suspended
by the league for a game after he was charged with battery. His wife at the time had told the police that he
became physical with her. The case did not go to trial. His lawyer, Randall Kessler of Atlanta, said it
was troubling that Mr. Boley had been punished by the N.F.L. I was not happy that he was suspended
based on an allegation, but Im glad it ended there, Mr. Kessler said. Later, the police investigated Mr.

Boley on child abuse allegations, which were raised amid a child-custody dispute. The outcome of that
investigation is unclear.
Besides the Rice case, the N.F.L. has also been harshly criticized for its handling of three other recent
abuse cases those of Adrian Peterson, a star running back for the Minnesota Vikings, who has been
accused of injuring one of his children; Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy, who was convicted
of assaulting his girlfriend; and San Francisco 49ers defensive end Ray McDonald, who was arrested last
month on suspicion of domestic violence.
Mr. Peterson was kept out of one game and then reinstated before an outcry led to his being suspended
indefinitely. Mr. Hardy played in one game, but is being kept out while still being paid. Mr. McDonald
has continued to play for the team, which has said it is waiting for his case to be resolved judicially.
Nita Chaudhary, a founder of UltraViolet, a womens rights advocacy group, remained critical of the
N.F.L. on Friday despite Goodells pledge to revamp the leagues personal conduct policy and penalties.
This press circus did nothing to change Goodells long history of inaction on and blatant mishandling of
domestic violence in the N.F.L., Ms. Chaudhary said in a statement. We call on all of the N.F.L.s
sponsors to take a stand against domestic violence by withdrawing their support for the N.F.L. until
Goodell is out of office.

These are some additional websites that can be looked over:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/10/us/nfl-conduct/
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000439286/article/the-nfls-response-to-domesticviolence-and-sexual-assault

Please address the following questions on Canvas.

Do you think Mr. Goodell is handling domestic violence involving N.F.L. players
correctly?
Do you agree with the new conduct policy? (6 game suspension for 1 st time D.V.
offenses, Suspended forever for 2nd time D.V. offenses)
What else do you think the N.F.L. can do to help eliminate the problem?
Do you think the media is helping or not helping the issue?

Dont forget to post your responses under my thread on Canvas.

Pennington, Bill, and Steve Eder. "In Domestic Violence Cases, N.F.L. Has a History of Lenience."The
New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Sept. 2014. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/20/sports/football/in-domestic-violence-cases-nfl-has-a-history-oflenience.html?_r=1>.

Levs, Josh. "NFL Toughens Policy Addressing Assault and Domestic Violence - CNN.com." CNN. Cable
News Network, 10 Dec. 2014. Web. 14 Feb. 2015. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/10/us/nfl-conduct/>.
"The NFL's Response to Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault." NFL.com. NFL.com, 5 Dec. 2014. Web.
14 Feb. 2015. <http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000439286/article/the-nfls-response-to-domesticviolence-and-sexual-assault>.