|
 The Arizona Cardinals suspended Jonathan Dwyer after his arrest
on charges of head-butting and breaking the nose of a woman. The
Baltimore Ravens invited fans to trade in jerseys of former star
player Ray Rice, who has been indefinitely suspended for punching
out his wife.
If teams have learned anything from the abuse scandal convulsing
America's most popular sports league, it may be that acting
decisively and quickly against domestic violence is the best way to
win in the court of public opinion.
Dwyer is the latest player caught up in the controversy. He was
arrested Wednesday on charges of aggravated assault and left an
Arizona jail on Thursday.
The team wasted no time in deactivating Dwyer on Wednesday, taking
cues from other clubs that kept their players on the field despite
similar charges, only to back peddle and take them off the field.
"The Cardinals have the benefit of being fourth in line, so it does
benefit them in that sense," said Robert Boland, a former domestic
abuse prosecutor who is now a professor of sports management and law
at New York University.
One team that reacted slowly was the Baltimore Ravens, which was
caught in the early days of the crisis after Rice beat his
then-girlfriend in a casino elevator in February. He was kept on the
team with a two-game suspension until a security video surfaced last
week showing the punch that knocked his now-wife out cold.
The team invited fans to exchange their Rice jerseys on Friday and
Saturday at Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium for that of another player,
the team said.
It is too early to say if the NFL and embattled commissioner Roger
Goodell are turning the corner on the crisis.
Sponsors and women's groups continued to voice concern over the
league's handling of the spate of cases and urged the NFL to respond
more forcefully.
On Thursday evening in Atlanta, site of the day's only nationally
televised NFL game, national women’s advocacy group UltraViolet will
have a plane fly over the stadium with a banner saying
"#GoodellMustGo" for the game between the Falcons and the Tampa Bay
Bucaneers.
PUBLIC KEEPS WATCHING FOOTBALL
Boland said the NFL is on a "surrealistic bumpy ride," at a time
when it should be celebrating the first month of the season and a
new television package on Thursday night.
"I don't want to say the NFL is not taking a hit because this is
certainly a very bad cycle for them," Boland said. "On the other
hand, the NFL is still the biggest platform to advertise on and be a
sponsor of.
"Not today, because it's too big of a cycle, but at some point
during the course of the year, they'll be able to turn this into a
positive."
Other players accused of domestic abuse are Adrian Peterson of the
Minnesota Vikings, Greg Hardy of the Carolina Panthers and Ray
McDonald of the San Francisco 49ers.
Peterson, a former NFL most valuable player and one of its marquee
players, has been accused of injuring his 4-year-old son when
whipping him with a tree branch.
[to top of second column]
|
Both Peterson and Hardy have been placed on the league's exempt
list, sidelining both players with pay until their legal troubles
are over. San Francisco continues to have McDonald in the line-up,
choosing to let the legal process play out.
According to a NBC News/Marist poll released on Thursday, 86 percent
of Americans say the recent clamor about domestic abuse in the NFL
has not changed how much professional football they watch and only
29 percent believe Goodell should resign.
The poll of 606 adults was conducted Sept. 16-17 and has a margin of
error of plus-minus 4.0 percentage points.
While Goodell remained out of public view this week, a key sponsor
spoke up in his favor. The chief executive of soft-drink giant
PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi, said Wednesday evening that Goodell appears to
be handling the incendiary issue correctly.
That is in contrast to the messages from Anheuser-Busch and
brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, also big NFL sponsors, which
criticized the league's handling of the cases.
Verizon Communications, another sponsor, said Thursday that the NFL
asked it several weeks ago for input on how to tackle the issue of
domestic violence.
"We have been working behind the scenes to develop and implement
programs that will address the problem at its root," said Verizon
Chief Executive Lowell McAdam, who gave an early endorsement to
Goodell last week.
Michael Cramer, director of the Texas Program in Sports and Media at
the University of Texas-Austin, said the NFL has the opportunity to
emerge stronger from the crisis.
"Roger Goodell has the chance to step up and say, 'This is what
we're going to do,' and if the players don't like playing in a
league that has these rules, they shouldn't apply," said Cramer.
"Do I think this is a long-term issue? No. Concussions are more of
an issue. You can stop this behavior and make sure that people are
not in the league. I'm not sure you can stop concussions because of
the nature of the game."
(Editing by Mary Milliken and Leslie Adler)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
