Domestic
violence by NFL players
Things
need to change. Domestic violence is the
NFL’s number #1 off field problem. Domestic violence accounts for 85 of the
713 arrests by NFL players since 2000, but dozens, even hundreds, of incidents
have been whitewashed. Former Bears G.M.
Jerry Angelo told USA Today that the
NFL hadn’t imposed any sort of discipline even after “hundreds and hundreds” of
domestic violence incidents surfaced and how “cover-ups were the norm” for
every team throughout the league. In
2000, Denver Broncos wide receiver Rod Smith beat his girlfriend. Smith never spent a day in prison. In 2006, Tennessee
Titans, linebacker Robert Reynolds was
charged with assault on his ex-wife; charges were dropped, and in 2012 Dallas
Cowboy Dez Bryant was accused of hitting his mother, charges also dropped. These players are getting off too easily. The most recent incident of
this sort of behavior was of well known Baltimore Raven running back, Ray
Rice. On September 8th, 2014
Ray Rice was suspended from the league because of a domestic abuse incident with
his then fiancée. He was suspended only after
the video of the abuse was shown to the public.
Would the NFL have not suspended him if the video had not been shown? Either way Rice was able to appeal his
suspension and only received a two-game ban.
The NFL
has come under heavy scrutiny following the Rice case and other domestic
violence situations. These instances have
caused them to implement an unpaid six-game ban for the first domestic violence
violation and a life-time ban for the second violation. In a letter and memo to the 32 teams, without
specifically addressing the Rice case, the commissioner wrote, "I didn't get it right. Simply put,
we have to do better. And we will".
But the NFL has always been inconsistent with these abuse
incidents. This new policy can work but
for how long? These players should be
punished more severely after the first domestic violence incident. If a player beat his spouse, he can’t just be
slapped on the wrist. He needs to be
made an example of so that other players don’t do the same thing. These professional athletes are given million
dollar contracts and they just break the law with no backlash, no public image
to be tarnished. That is just not
right. According to SportsIllustrated.com, women viewership has gone up 5 percent this
NFL season, but that is only because of the domestic violence incidents
released to the public being in the single digits, and not in the double
digits.
Works Cited
Hi Nathan,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. It seems that we Americans are only invested in the most current news story, and as soon as something else happens, all our attention is diverted. The NFL domestic violence controversy only happened a few months ago, but the media seems to have forgotten about it. I was glad to read about something not currently all over the news.
Your argument is logical, moral, and backed up with plenty of evidence, all of which make it hard to challenge. You, the speaker, have successfully persuaded me, the audience, of your argument on the topic. Additionally, I liked that not only did you do some research, but you cite a variety of sources. Instead of taking all your material from one source, you quote a range of references, which adds to your credibility.
There are a couple minor technical things. The main portion of your argument made sense, but the first and last sentences seemed out of place. After reading only the first sentence, I don't know what you're arguing; "things need to change" is vague. The last sentence seemed like it should be moved to the middle of one of the paragraphs. It sounded more like a supporting detail than a conclusion. I also think the post would read more smoothly with some more punctuation. For example,"off field" in the first sentence could be hyphenated, as could "then fiancée" toward the end of the first paragraph; there could also be a comma or a dash in between "...work but..." in the middle of the second paragraph. Minor changes like these would make your writing smoother and clearer.
Overall, though, I liked the statistics, the conciseness, and the flow of your post.
Nathan, I agree with Simon on all accounts. As a piece of persuasive writing, this is quite strong, for all the reasons we talked about in school. Good job. This is a model for you to follow in future persuasive pieces.
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