Ditto:
RB Ray Rice Born: January 22, 1987 (age 27), will run the ball in the NFL again unless he elects to retire.
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' He said that while Goodell had “correctly” set out to address events with the Saints in the broader context of current player safety concerns, he noted that when a “change in culture rests heavily on prohibitions, and discipline and sanctions that are seen as selective, ad hoc or inconsistent, then people in all industries are prone to react negatively — whether they be construction workers, police officers or football players.” He continued: “Rightly or wrongly, a sharp change in sanctions or discipline can often be seen as arbitrary and as an impediment rather than an instrument of change. That is what we see on the record here.” '
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?
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.