In the past two years the NFL has seen an alarming rise in
off-the field issues involving its players. Some of the most notable ones are
the Ray Rice elevator incident and Ray McDonald’s sexual assault cases. The NFL
has worked in the past few years to eliminate the risk of concussions and the
frequency of which they occur. Numerous changes to the rulebook have been added
to protect players and to provide evidence that the league is working towards
eliminating the issue. We can applaud the NFL in their efforts to lower to
improve player safety, but sadly, we cannot say the same about its effort on
maintaining player discipline off the field.
Last off season the league experience a string of domestic
abuse including an incident involving running back Adrian Peterson and one of
his children. The league and the commissioner, Roger Goodell, were under heavy
criticism because of the poor way the league handled its cases of domestic
abuse involving its players. This off-season Greg hardy will be returning to the football field as a Dallas Cowboy, but not without the league handing down
a ten game suspension for his involvement on a domestic abuse case last year. The
biggest problem the NFL had last year during the stretch of off the field
issues was the way in which the league was handling their punishments for these
players. The league was presented with an opportunity to be proactive this time
around. The league handed him a 10 game suspension to essentially punish his actions,
which were labeled “detrimental to the league”.
In the end, the NFL has done many things to curve its public
perception on player safety and they have worked for the most part. Unfortunately,
This change came only after public demand for a change. Now that the NFL faces
a new issue that it must be taken care of I can’t help but wonder if they will
ever be proactive about issues, which are essentially “detrimental to the
league.
