By Julie Buehler
Don’t you think it’s about time?
I don’t mean about Ray Rice being suspended indefinitely and cut from the Ravens, I mean about domestic abusers to be wholly shunned from the public eye and disallowed from making money off their ability to be in the public’s good graces. They can go earn a living where we won’t be confronted and our senses insulted by their presence. Because men or women who abuse others in the dark corners of a night or nightclub should be relegated to living in the dark corners of our consciousness, not making millions shoving it in our faces.
I’m talking to you Floyd Mayweather. The highest paid athlete on the planet has also been facing more than a decade of domestic violence charges. Ray Rice is a professional athlete whose life is forever changed as security footage of him striking his then-fiancé was released publicly. The outrage caused the NFL to take action it’s never taken before and they suspended him indefinitely, the Baltimore Ravens cut him and Roger Goodell said any contract that includes him will need to be approved by the league.
Rice is a man who made his living in the public eye and therefore, relinquishes some level of privacy when his personal life collides with police. We get that.
But what’s different about Ray Rice’s abuse is that it was caught on tape for the world to see, and with that visual comes a visceral reaction of disgust and disdain. Floyd Mayweather, Hope Solo, Ray McDonald, Greg Hardy and more have recently also been linked to domestic violence. Some have been processed by the court system, some have not, but the question is, why is there not more public outrage about all domestic violence?
Getting rid of Ray Rice is like taking a single bullet out of an oozy. Damage can, and likely, will still be done.
But as many in the media applaud the NFL, and I do as well, we’re failing to examine the larger issue in our society and a culture of domestic violence.
When we see problems in sports, you need to realize it’s a much, MUCH larger problem in our society, because the world of sport is a petri dish of our culture.
It takes the biggest bodies, biggest personalities and the biggest egos and drenches them in millions or potentially hundreds of millions of dollars and power and influence and lets human nature fester and grow in the public eye where victories are equated to “glory” and athletes are tabbed as “heroes” when they deliver those momentous moments.
And sports fans, casual or devoted, want to believe the good. We want to believe our cultural petri dish is one we can have “pride” in, led by the “faithful” and while in many cases, that’s close to reality, sports fans and sports media have a hard time separating themselves from those narratives and recognizing the very startling reality that athletes aren’t narratives, they’re just people. Flawed as the next guy, sometimes more so.
But because of an athlete’s ability on the field, the coddling and constant capitulation to their whims can create a sense of entitlement for these flawed individuals and they become bold and brazen in their power. And abuse those in their life they deem to have less power.
By keeping these abusers in the public eye and handing them the millions or hundreds of millions associated with that, those signing the checks are funding that abuse and the culture that excuses it.
So while Ray Rice had the most visible example of domestic violence, there are countless offenders in the world of sports that are not spoken about by mainstream media as they are frequently paid by the same check-writers that fund the athletes.
Furthermore, if someone, such as myself, ventures to introduce the MANY vicious attacks on women by Floyd Mayweather, sports fans, living in their tragically small bubble of false reality, blame me for not “understanding” or “bringing up the past.” Heaven forbid anyone consider the DECADE of vicious attacks on women who birthed his children and the repeated assaults on women who simply questioned Mayweather or the mountains of evidence that point to his brazen disregard for other human beings.
His $200 million dollar contract from SHOWTIME Sports is powerful enough to sweep the latest reports under the rug in preparation for his fight on Sept 13th.
In fact, many boxing writers have gone so far as to assert that the most recent lawsuit filed on Sept 4th by his former fiancé, Shantel Jackson, is timed in order to disrupt his fight preparation. Forget the fact he’s been in trouble for domestic violence multiple times for more than a decade, the latest issue is simply to derail his training.
Wake up.
If we are going to see change in our society we need to first address the most public form of this massive issue and vocally, strongly and relentlessly denounce the domestic violence committed by ANY athlete (male or female) and disallow their participation in the public forum regardless of prestige, contract or sport.
It may not help those already victimized and facing a long road to healing, but it’s about time, don’t you think?
Julie Buehler hosts the Coachella Valley’s most popular sports talk radio show, “Buehler’s Day Off” every day from 3-6 on 1010 KXPS, the valley’s all sports station. She can also be seen every morning between 6-7am on KMIR sharing the coolest stories in sports. She’s an avid gym rat, slightly sarcastic and more likely to recite Steve Young’s career passing stats than American Idol winners. Tune in M-F 3-6 pst at www.team1010.com or watch “Buehler’s Day Off” on Ustream and KMIR.com for her sports reports.
