Report: NFL to add outside help for domestic violence

Posted by Darin Gantt on September 15, 2014, 11:40 AM EDT
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With criticism of the NFL spreading across the land last week, the league is beginning to take steps to slow it down in Washington.

According to Mike Allen of Politico.com, the NFL is about to announce the hiring of outside advisers and counselors to help with their domestic violence problem.

Much in the same way they retained independent neurologists and added staff to fight the concussion issue, the added manpower should at least pacify those on Capitol Hill who are beginning to creep into their business.

The report also says the league plans to add to staff for compliance and training, and will include domestic violence awareness in its high school and college level educational programs.

A league official said the moves are a sign the NFL is “doing everything we can to earn the trust of our fans and the community, on and off the field.”

It may be too late to repair all of that, after the worst week in the league’s history.

But at this stage, any step forward is a positive one.

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35 responses to “Report: NFL to add outside help for domestic violence”

  1. Don’t you mean, “With sites like this gleefully spreading criticism of the NFL across the land…”

  2. Well if it works as good as the drug counseling, financial counseling, and call a ride program …. well unfortunately, nothing much will change

  3. Goodell still has to go though, people in charge who make 10’s of millions per year can’t make mistakes like he did and keep their jobs,

  4. Let’s see he can make 3 new hires in a week but he couldn’t get his hands on the Ray Rice tapes. Riiiiiight.

    He only makes decisions due to public opinion. He’s not a leader.

  6. Sadly, I fear the sports media will destroy the NFL long before the NFL has the chance to destroy itself

  7. Does Congress have a “Special” Domestic Abuse Policy?
    Does the Military have a “Special” Domestic abuse policy?
    Do Teachers have a special domestic Abuse policy?
    Does our Police Force have a Special Domestic Abuse Policy?

    If none of these are institutions have such a policy why in heck does the NFL need to have one?

  8. Here is how you determine if a player should play.

    Is the player in jail? No – he plays. Yes, he doesn’t play.

  9. Abuse your child : 1 week De – activation

    Knock your wife out in elevator: 2 weeks suspension

    Smoke weed 10 games suspension

    The NFL has a penalty structure problem.

    Punishments don’t fit the crimes. REVISED drug policy is still a joke

  10. If the NFL wants a public display of penance, it could hire Gloria Allred to create a symposium on domestic violence, then require all owners, GMs and head coaches to attend and penalize non-attendees by taking away draft choices.

    Some might claim this to be cruel an unusual, but it would be a starting point.

  13. I am finding the onus being placed on the employer for the social responsibility of punishing criminals to be very unnerving.
    Many years ago, I had an easy version of the Ray Rice situation. Guy, good employee, beat the crap out’ve his wife. It was easy in our case because his wife also worked for us. No way, that piece of crap was going to be allowed back in the building with her. Guy was out, that day, no need to wait for the law.
    In the Rice case it seems like the government did not do their job of prosecuting and punishing him, so the league is on the hook. In the Hardy case, it seems like, the government did not do enough (probation), and so the league is being asked to double down on the punishment (end his career).
    One of the brutal ironies I see is that one after another elected official is beating on the league office, and yet I’ve heard of none, calling on the local justice authorities who let Rice walk or Hardy get probation for these offences. Guys in glass housings firing stones for sure.

  14. And Ray Rice is still suspended indefinitely????

    Rice’s player rights were violated by the commissioner.

    First he’s suspended for 2 games and given a 1 game-check fine. Then he’s suspended indefinitely under a new policy that’s not done and doesn’t even get a second hearing???

    If a case is up for review under the policy and Goodell had to do it the second time Rice should have been called in for a second hearing.

    Also, players have to violate their discipline provisions to have extended (likely). Did Rice perform another violation no.

    Goodell will lose the appeal. Why? Because he has suspended Rice for no valid reason. This unfinished domestic abuse policy under the conduct policy isn’t a valid reason. Nor is the video as a new revelation, Rice’s possible lie, Rice’s violation of his court sentence and suspension provision, or stinking anything.

    The commissioner has done more wrong since punishing Rice the first time. Rice has been abiding by everything and thus he’s not worthy of an indefinite suspension.

  15. btw, full transparency, I am 100% aligned with James Harrison on the character of Roger Goodell. I am enjoying watching Goodell squirm after he took his DPOY and made an outlaw and goon out’ve him, to suit his own purposes.

    But I am an employer (albeit Canadian), and I cannot understand the rationale for making the employer dole out society’s punishment.

  16. The Mt. Rushmore of Football is weeping. We may in fact be observing the collapse of Western civilization before our very eyes and it’s like witnessing a train wreck in super slow motion. The powers that be and our leadership are failing epically. Every move they make appears to be like throwing an aspirin at Ebola. Our morals and priorities have gotten so out of whack that even when we try to do the right thing it’s already to late because we should have been doing it all along. Personally, I’m leaning toward the sentiments Maynard James Keenan describes in Aenima.

  18. YES! We need the NFL battered wives shelter!

    A safe house where wives and girlfriends can go to escape from the controlling and abusive husbands and boy friends who live the good life and happen to play in the NFL.

    That’s socially responsible!

  20. Btw, Goodell and the NFL truly need help in this area…the fact that they aren’t treating the Adrian Peterson issue as domestic violence is a joke.

    Slap these idiots with there punishment (6 games min) and move on so the game can be made great again and the NFL stops looking like a joke.

    Any team that employs these idiots should know better. While they should do something about it themselves, they won’t because they have no backbone.

    Next man up, everyone is replaceable.

  21. Psst, tavisteelersfan, the league office and the commissioner are not his employer, they are a governing body/cartel with anti-trust exemption, entrusted, see what I did there, with the authority to discipline individual employee’s of the thirty two members. The reason they enjoy the anti-trust exemption, first and foremost is, wait for it, wait for it, the billions in profit they reap as a nonprofit 501(c)(6) See, when there are inherent conflicts of interest, people of means simply change the rules for their benefit so they can amass vast fortunes without having to contribute, in the mandatory fashion the rest of us do taxes, to the very society that enriches them. And so the decline of Western Society was begun in earnest.

  23. Are they hiring experts to help them resolve the problems….or hiring experts to skirt responsibility of these problems?

  26. Is that what were calling child beatings now, domestic violence? Sounds like calling alcoholism a disease. Or ADD a disease. We have found ways to cover up for all our transgressions by making it sound less that it is.

    Ziggy Wiff has lost all and any respect I had and I will boycott all Vikes games until they do the right thing.

  27. Our org had many many issues with race and we had more diversity training than I care to think about. It did nothing to stop the issues but the org felt good about themselves and had a raft of people who were so called experts on diversity.

    What a freekin joke.

  28. Shame on the NFL for assuming the grown men it employs would know to act appropriately within a society.

  29. I welcome any program to help players become more mentally, physically, and financially sound while they’re playing and beyond. That’s because I love the game and want its popularity to continue for generations to come. The players generate a lot of money for the league. So it makes sense for the league to protect their chief asset.

    But I get frustrated when people–for instance, Mike Lupica and the ESPN Sports Reporters–start talking about whether these domestic violence issues could bring down the sport. With Rice, Peterson, McDonald, and Hardy, we’re talking about four players … of 1900. Many a musician has been caught up in domestic violence issues and other criminal activity, too. We may stop buying their records. But we don’t stop listening to music. Let’s stop blaming the sport for what is an individual problem that affects people in all professions.

  30. @gayforbrady:

    Does Congress have a “Special” Domestic Abuse Policy? Does the Military have a “Special” Domestic abuse policy? Do Teachers have a special domestic Abuse policy? Does our Police Force have a Special Domestic Abuse Policy?
    If none of these are institutions have such a policy why in heck does the NFL need to have one?
    —————-
    Because there is a swift law enforcement process that deals with them as soon as reported, etc. and they get punished, lose their jobs, go to jail, etc. Those people can’t claim privilege like these players do when they foul up. They kill in DUI, beat up wives and children, rape, illegal drugs and other substances, illegal weapons charges, etc. and they WANT on the field the next day. Do you think some in the Patriots wouldn’t take Hernandez back to play until he is convicted, after all, he could be cleared.

    The problem is that the fan does not care and they do care, and at the same time, they demand a no criminal league. OK. Everyone is schizoid.

    We have several players accused of DV and no guidance from law enforcement. Then we expect the commissioner to act as judge, jury, arresting officer, community advocate, and PR guru. The truth is that he is taking it all for the owners, the players, the union. The league is exposed, they don’t know what to do, so why not a panel to help out.

    At least this panel will be able to advise on issues that the league is ill equipped to handle. Any policy from them should address all issues with fairness and balance. You are deluding yourself if you think the NFL does not have a big problem in its midst.

  31. Btw, one thing on Rice not being worthy of another Conduct Policy Suspension.

    Tank Johnson was suspended for 8 games based on the Conduct Policy. Johnson served jail time after his suspension and then was arrested afterwards for suspicion of DUI, but never saw his 8-game suspension increase.

    Since suspicion of DUI is not a drug-related issue, but DUI manslaughter is a conduct policy issue and suspicion of DUI technically could have been a case worth a conduct policy review why is Rice getting suspended again after the NFL had initial info on his case and penalized him once after he gave his side of the story???

    Rice should not be based on precedents in conduct policy past. After all, making yourself suspicious for the police is not different from Ben Roethlisberger’s 2009 lawsuit factoring into his 2010 suspension for the Georgia woman case because it’s about putting yourself in position to get in trouble and it’s being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Putting yourself in position to get in trouble and it’s being at the wrong place at the wrong time is a part of the Conduct Policy and this inconsistency should be used against Goodell in the arbitration case.

  32. “Is that what were calling child beatings now, domestic violence? Sounds like calling alcoholism a disease. Or ADD a disease. We have found ways to cover up for all our transgressions by making it sound less that it is. ”

    Huh? Alcoholism IS a disease. And what is the problem with including child beatings in domestic violence. If you argue child beatings aren’t “domestic violence” that seems to underplay “domestic violence”. I honestly don’t even know what you’re arguing here.

  34. Hell must be freezing over. Goodell, the ultimate control freak, has actually come to the conclusion that there is something that he doesn’t have a clue about and is bringing in someone who does have a clue. This must be extremely difficult for him.

  35. Remember way back when the big controversy was replacement referees? We were all so innocent then. What I’d give to go back and have poorly officiated games, oh crap really, that’s the wish that I get to come true?

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