Football Heartbreak & Ray Rice
A lot of stuff has been swirling around about Ray Rice and the NFL this week.
I don’t know how to process my feelings.
As a female, I am disgusted and outraged at his behavior, and Roger Goodell’s lax response, until yesterday, about it. I am sad for Janay Palmer (Janay Rice? They married a month after the beating, after all), and, enmeshed in sympathy, more than a little anger with her for staying with him.
As a football fan, more specifically a die-hard Ravens fanatic and (former) Ray Rice devotee, I am heartbroken. Disappointed doesn’t even begin to describe it.
To think that I revered so much someone who is capable of such appallingly violent behaviour sickens me.
The career of an exceedingly talented running back is in the toilet, and I hope it remains there. 3-time Pro-bowler…. the only player in Ravens history to rush for 1,000 yards in four consecutive seasons….leader in yards from scrimmage….second-leading rusher in franchise history.
That is some serious football promise right there. All killed by a penchant for violence, and what I am sure is an enormous ego – only someone with an ego the size of the fields he plays on can expect to get away with behaviour like this.
As far as the team is concerned….I don’t know how to feel. I am proud that they (FINALLY) terminated his contract.
But after the tweet heard ’round the world, I am not sure how to move forward. I have loved the Ravens until now, and I don’t know that I can continue to support a management team that would back a message that essentially lays at least 50% of the blame for Rice’s violence at Ms. Palmer’s feet. I am sure she has her part to play in the argument they were clearly having, but nothing she could have done can justify Rice’s actions.
Playing in any professional sport is a PRIVILEGE, not a right. I am heartbroken that this talent will be missing from the game I love. I am overjoyed that the game I love has taken a stand (again, FINALLY) against domestic violence.
I have a daughter. I am going to raise her in sports, and hopefully with a love of football, which both her father and I share. I am also going to teach her that no amount of violence is acceptable, from any person – not me, not her father, not her husband, not her friend – ANYONE.
They have a daughter. And if Ms. Palmer stays in the relationship, she will raise yet another woman who will accept violent behavior from a man. Sad.
