Interesting. It applies to any employee - not just players. And a 2-time offense will result in a one-year ban, at minimum, with it possibly being a lifetime ban.
I don’t condone domestic violence. Hell, my soon-to-be-ex-wife hit me on occasion. And I think it’s great that they’ve upped the stakes from the Ray Rice suspension. But I wonder how much of the decision was influenced by the perception that Goodell dropped the ball on Rice’s punishment. To use a particularly gruesome pun, the NFL had a black eye of the Ray Rice suspension. I wonder how much of this is just an attempt to repair the PR hit.
Why does it matter why the change happened? If it sticks, it’s a good thing.
If it was just done for publicity and we later find out that a whole bunch of incidents were swept under the rug because nobody was watching any more and the employees in question were considered too important to lose for six games, that’s when it becomes a problem.
The part that jumps out at me is “is found.” By whom? Do they have to wait till the court case is complete? If the charges are dropped will they still go forward with the league punishment? Who makes the determination?
Very true. My point there, was that I wonder how much of it is Goodell actually thinking “I changed my opinion,” and how much is just him changing his mind because of how lambasted he was getting over the Rice situation.
I guess I wonder how sincere he is about it, but YMMV.
I’m pretty sure Goodell’s opinion has always been “whatever gets the NFL and its teams the most money, including defusing bad PR.”
I’m sure he’s quite sincere about maximizing profit.
Snarky, I guess. But TBH, it’s pretty naive to believe that the chief executive of any large moneymaking organization will drive his business decisions on the basis of personal ethical concerns. Even if Goodell thought domestic violence was teh debbul incarnate, I really don’t think he’d act on that.
Sometimes when the whole world attacks you for something, you do reexamine your behavior. He probably epwas not that “sincere” about giving Rice a slap Om the wrist either. He has competing agendas, and must reach a balance between keeping his beg name players on the field and acting like the league cares about domestic violence. He has apparently learned the perceived tolerance to DV is a bigger problem than coming down hard on star players. Lesson learned.
They have an agreement - collectively bargained - that allows the NFL to discipline its employees for conduct detrimental to the “brand.” Much like any private company has the right to discipline its employees for failing to adhere to company conduct standards, irrespective of whether the infraction was actually against the law.
My brother is a corrections officer. They’re not allowed to take cell phones if they have to transport an inmate off prison grounds for any reason. He was recently suspended for doing just that. His argument was that the prison phone he was supposed to take instead didn’t work, so he took his personal one. What he did was not illegal. But against prison policy.
No. It’s from going forward, with no additional punishments for Ray Rice
Good point, but remember that, in a lot of areas, the state can still press charges against a person, even with the victim wanting to drop all charges.
A quick google-and-shufti tells me that lack of victim cooperation isn’t even a factor in the success or failure of prosecution of domestic violence accusations.:
[Quote=Department of Justice]
A study of almost 100 domestic violence trials in San Diego found that uniformly high conviction rates were obtained independent of victim or defendant statements, witness testimony and corroborating evidence. In fact, outcomes were also independent of whether the victim testified for the prosecution or for the defense.
[/quote]
So, practically speaking, if the violence can be identified by any third party (including security cameras and 911), “standing by your man” isn’t going to protect the gravy train.
As the generator of the “bullshit” I think it is a legitimate concern that will likely happen. If the NFL stance is formed with the possibility in mind, maybe they can preempt the situation.
It’s not exactly bullshit. Many victims decide to not go forward because they are worried about what their financial situation will be. That is regardless if we are talking about 25k a year or 2 million. Things in real life are seldom as black and white as they are in a Lifetime movie. There are often many factors as to why a victim will refuse to cooperate.
It is not (IMO) a nitpick to say that this studied how successful a trial was likely to be. I can see how a prosecutor could decide to go ahead even without the victim’s testimony if he had a strong enough case otherwise. I understand your point - a DA can get a domestic violence conviction even without the victim’s testimony - but I don’t think it has been demonstrated that lack of victim cooperation isn’t even a factor.
I don’t know that the NFL is going to do any better a job with domestic violence than the legal justice system does, or any other employer would do. Would you want Midas to fire your mechanic when he hasn’t been convicted of anything?
Yeah, lack of victim cooperation is definitely a factor. If it deters prosecutors from prosecuting, that’s a case that wasn’t prosecuted, whether or not the evidentiary basis for a conviction would have been there in the hypothetical trial that never happened.