<p>“Note that Goodell first did a 2-game suspension, then instituted a 6-game suspension and then a lifetime suspension. This was not the fans asking for this; this is purely media and interest group-driven. The fans and companies were fine with the 2-game suspension.”</p>
<p>I was a Ravens fan and I wasn’t fine with a 2 game suspension. I haven’t watched any football this year and I don’t intend to unless things really change. Goodell backpedaling and making more promises is not real change. </p>
<p>Where was the media outrage when the Baltimore Ravens recently erected a statue of Ray Lewis? He and/or his posse was involved in a nightclub stabbing murder. It was/is disgusting that he is deified. He should not have been in the NFL.</p>
<p>^^ I think is a bit more fundamental than that - “There is no anti-nightclub stabbing murder activist groups,” which did not like football in the first place. If these groups liked football, they would have looked the other way.</p>
<p>Take a look at all the women who accused one very famous figure of sexual assault and hitting, and he is still loved by these groups. These same activist groups turned the other cheek and openly called those women bimbos. His wife even calls them bimbos to this day. It proves that you can buy just about group off, if it likes other things you do.</p>
<p>In this case, Goodell is trying to buy off the interests groups with useless policies re in return for good PR from them. Good PR that the NFL never had from these groups. </p>
<p>That would be rational. But, I don’t really think spontaneous violence is usually a rational decision. There’s also a lot of alcohol and drug abuse associated with this stuff. It’s not always men, either. If we’re talking athletes, Jennifer Capriati comes to mind. Whatever happened to her?</p>
<p>The men are not thinking that far ahead, if at all. If anything, that video with Rice shows is how irrational and fast the act often is. There was zero thinking behind his punch. </p>
<p>I do believe people are missing the more vulnerable and, consequently, the most powerful part of the picture - women in general, especially women with their kids, do not want to be poor. Poverty or a drastically different lifestyle is, I bet, a whole lot scarier to these women than being hit or having their kid abused. </p>
<p>These men do not turn themselves in, so the onus would be on the women to turn them in. And the fear of poverty or falling-out of one’s social strata / circle will be the driving force to keep quiet. </p>
<p>People are not stupid, including those women; they are not going to bite the hands that feeds them if the automatic and immediate result is they will not get fed anymore. </p>
<p>As post #147 says, you are putting rational thought behind irrational acts. When a man swings his fist like that, there is no rationality involved. </p>
<p>Poverty? These guys have multi-million dollar contracts. Assuming they’ve saved something or have some assets, even dividing by two in a divorce would get these wives and children several million. </p>
<p>Not poverty, but even a woman soon to be an ex wife wants her husband to make millions, not zero. What kind of child support and alimony will you get from an unemployed ex husband?</p>
<p>I see your point awc, but also believe that all those reasons not to report are in pretty full effect now, even without job loss as an automatic consequence of reporting. Many abused already fear financial insecurity when they consider leaving their abusers, if he is the breadwinner. Getting a divorce with alimony/child support and all that is rather easily said than done and certainly disruptive, and I mean that for poorer women maybe more than pro football wives. The argument makes more sense for women who want to report abuse but also stay married to the abuser?</p>
<p>Well, I guess, But, what are we to do with that information? And, that doesn’t seem like the kind of point LasMa would be trying to make at all. But, maybe it is.</p>
<p>I sure wouldn’t assume most NFL players come from poor backgrounds. It can take a lot of money to pursue a sport in the manner it takes to get pro-good. </p>
<p>Did a little googling and apparently in the NBA, more players come from middle class and up than poor. Instinct tells me the NFL would be have even fewer poor kids. </p>