Stephen A Smith Apologized, Where's Roger Goodell's Apology?

The backlash from the whole Ray Rice incident and (lack of) disciplinary measures by the NFL has been pretty amazing.  I was struck by the fairly universal take by most of the men I have heard discussing it.  The general consensus has seemed to be that Roger Goodell sent an extremely poor message by suspending Ray Rice for a mere 2 games.  He has given substantially longer sentences for drug-related infractions, but almost nothing for an incident where Rice beat his then girlfriend into unconsciousness.  I was very pleased to hear such strong support from male broadcasters on sports radio talk shows, as well as from their male listeners who were calling in to give their opinions on the situation.  I do not recall hearing anyone say anything but the punishment was ridiculously light, aside from Ravens' coach John Harbaugh's statement which pretty well diminished the importance of the issue and gave high support for Rice.  But that's another story.  The most recent story that I have heard about a response to the situation involved tweets by Stephen A Smith.  I have always thought Stephen A Smith was hilarious.  I love when he goes on his rants.  What he tweeted initially about women needing to essentially do their share to avoid abuse was completely off the wall ridiculous.  I was pleased to see he went to great lengths to clarify his statement and to stress whole heartedly that he did not mean that a woman was ever asking for it or that they had any fault in being abused.  The fault definitely is the abuser's, absolutely not the abusee's.

I am pleased to see that now the great majority of men and women seem to be in agreement that abuse is absolutely wrong, and that the consequences should be considerably stronger.  Let's see if Roger Goodell will do anything in response to the backlash.  I find it interesting that he has made no comment whatsoever since laying out his lame ruling.  His doling out of punishment and fines always seems so arbitrary.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised that he hasn't offered any response or made any sort of acknowledgement about the controversy surrounding all of this.  And since little if any males seem to be siding with Goodell, his short-sightedness must not be a difference based on gender.  I will refrain from mentioning on what I feel the difference is truly based!


www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/25/espn-stephen-smith-abuse-ray-rice-rant_n_5621120.html