http://triblive.com/opinion/nafarivanaski/6075611-74/nfl-rice-vanaski#axzz3D3vtPlKA
Vanaski: Of Rice and Men: NFL fails
Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014, 10:42 p.m.Updated 23 hours ago
Oh, for heaven's sake, NFL, just take him back already. You know you want to.
You know as well as I do that Ray Rice's indefinite ban from the game is indefinite only because you don't know how long it will take for this PR disaster to die down enough so you can reinstate him.
Because if the league cared about doing the right thing, you would have done it after Rice was arrested for domestic violence in February. You wouldn't have needed to see a video of something you knew had happened in order to display shock.
If there's any doubt about that, consider the latest reports that the NFL could have seen this video back in April but opted not to do so.
Ray Rice is a good football player. And for Baltimore Ravens and NFL officials, that matters more than being a criminal.
If the NFL was ever interested in doing the right thing, would Ben Roethlisberger have been allowed to talk himself out of a longer suspension for violating the league's personal conduct code back in 2010? He was accused — but never criminally charged — of raping a young woman in Georgia and was given a six-game suspension.
So which is it: did he deserve to be punished by the NFL or not? If he did, he shouldn't have been able to whittle down his penalty to four games after a heart-to-heart with Roger Goodell, the league commissioner.
Let's face reality. If a player is accused of a crime, the NFL welcomes him back as long as he's not in jail. So do sports fans.
Before the video's release, Baltimore fans were still supporting a guy who knocked his girlfriend unconscious and then dragged her out of an elevator like a sack of potatoes. These fans surely must know that if they were accused of doing what Rice did, they'd still be in jail awaiting trial. They would lose their jobs immediately and be ostracized by their neighbors.
But Rice, despite injury last year, still ran for 660 yards and four touchdowns. In 2012, when the Ravens won the Super Bowl, he scored nine TDs and ran for 1,143 yards, so that explains it.
Why don't these athletic organizations hold players to higher standards? That's because this is what many athletes are used to, and it starts early. It starts when the bar is academically lowered. Did you know that you need only a 2.0 GPA to play sports in Pittsburgh Public Schools? That's the equivalent of a C-minus.
Have you ever tried to feed a toddler who didn't want to eat? After 20 minutes of trying every trick in the book, you bargain with them. “Listen,” you say, “just eat these two bites, and that's it.” How much will that child eat? The minimum required, that's how much.
We don't expect a lot from athletes beyond production in their sport. And that sometimes is just what we get.
Nafari Vanaski is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-856-7400, ext. 8669, nvanaski@tribweb.com or on Twitter @NafariTrib.
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