The NFL suspended Ray Rice indefinitely this week after TMZ released the inescapable video of the former Raven punching his wife in an elevator, but NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that there’s a chance that Rice could be reinstated in the future.
Several players, including Giants linebacker and former Rice teammate Jameel McClain, have indicated they would be willing to give Rice a second chance. McClain’s current teammate Mark Herzlich isn’t one of them. The linebacker took a strong stance against Rice’s return to the locker room
“I wouldn’t welcome him. I’ve known him before. I’ve known him as a good guy before. But at the same time, it’s kind of an accepting defense, like ‘You know what? All right.’ ... There is no room for it, to be honest,” Herzlich said, via NJ.com. “I take, first of all, breaking the law very seriously and I don’t want to surround myself with people who are going to do it. [Domestic violence is] much different than a victim-less crime, in my opinion. There is a victim. There is intention. There is a purpose. That purpose is to hurt somebody else. There is no place for that in the locker room.”
Herzlich went on to say that there should be “no tolerance” for domestic violence because it helps perpetuate it, which couldn’t help but make us do a little unsuccessful searching for Herzlich’s public comments about his displeasure about sharing a locker room with former Giants Michael Boley and Rocky Bernard. Both men were suspended by the league for domestic violence incidents before they were teammates of Herzlich’s, but there was no outcry from Herzlich or anyone else about their ability to continue playing in the NFL.
The same is true of many other players who have served their brief suspensions and returned to their jobs without anyone batting an eye. That’s not just the failing of Herzlich or any of other players in the NFL who have condemned Rice’s actions this week. It’s a failing on many levels, including fans and those of us in the media who have expressed outrage this week, and a reminder that cases of abuse are just as heinous when no cameras are trained on the victim.