Ray Rice

[Guiness]

Apparently RG wasn't listening. What a shit show this whole thing is. Neither Tags nor Rozelle got mired in this BS, at least not to my recollection. Gooddell is a damn joke and a bad one at that.

In RG's defense, this was uncharted ground for the NFL and he had to make it up as he went along. That's why there was no policy for this. In Tags and Rozelle's day, or even earlier in Goodell's tenure, it wouldn't have landed on the internet and attracted national attention, etc. Honestly, I wouldn't doubt it did happen and simply got swept under the carpet. Does anyone seriously think, say, Romanowski never decked a chick?

[pbmax]

In RG's defense, this was uncharted ground for the NFL and he had to make it up as he went along. That's why there was no policy for this. In Tags and Rozelle's day, or even earlier in Goodell's tenure, it wouldn't have landed on the internet and attracted national attention, etc. Honestly, I wouldn't doubt it did happen and simply got swept under the carpet. Does anyone seriously think, say, Romanowski never decked a chick?

I agree that the subject and the public reaction to it changed under their feet over time. But other corporations have been dealing with that for years, if not a decade or more. The NFL was clearly behind and had no sold policy to fall back on, only platitudes and a case by case approach.

And there were signs of trouble along the way. One man as judge and appeal needs to be beyond reproach and from simple DUI to DUI manslaughter to Roethlisberger's rape allegations, he has been all over the board and the players let the League know this.

The professionals in the League Office should have seen the trouble the Player Conduct Policy was going to cause (it was intended to deal with the problem with no having a Policy before it) by being so open ended. Compared to the NBA or the MLB, the NFL was woefully unprepared.

[mraynrand]

In RG's defense, this was uncharted ground for the NFL and he had to make it up as he went along. That's why there was no policy for this. In Tags and Rozelle's day, or even earlier in Goodell's tenure, it wouldn't have landed on the internet and attracted national attention, etc. Honestly, I wouldn't doubt it did happen and simply got swept under the carpet. Does anyone seriously think, say, Romanowski never decked a chick?

society has changed in other ways as well. For example, rape now is defined to include saying 'no' or feeling bad about what happened anytime after the fact, up to four-five decades later (which would describe most marriages).