Man, poor Adam Silver. The new commissioner of America's National Basketball Association just got over the Donald Sterling crisis and then, actually before that crisis was really over, had to deal with the similar crisis in Atlanta, which as grown from the Bruce Levenson crisis into the crisis in Atlanta. Silver became a quasi national hero with his handling of Sterling. Americans trust Adam Silver.
Not so Roger Goodell. Commish of the National (tackle) Football League, Goodell inherited a disturbing epidemic, at least in awareness, of concussions from playing the sport in his league. Prominent ex-players have committed suicide, have suffered cognitive impairment obvious to those close to them, even those who hear them speak publicly. There have been lawsuits filed by ex-players and the concussions are a real crisis for Goodell. The NFL under Goodell has looked at the issue and has defended the suits with, "Concussion crisis? What concussion crisis? We don't see any concussion crisis." Such looking and disbelieving his lying eyes has, of course, meant that Goodell has presided over an increase in the incidence of concussions, causing a health crisis and a crisis for Goodell's credibility.
Which is also the way Goodell handled the matter of star player Ray Rice. Rice got into an incidence of domestic disquiet with his betrothed, then Rice and his soulmate got into an elevator, which elevator was inside a casino. Elevators are not equipped to calm the tempests of domestic discord, manifestly did not with Rice and Janay, but elevators in casinos are with cameras and Rice was observed on the cameras to be dragging the manifestly unconscious Janay out of the elevator. Rice admitted punching Janay in the elevator and apologized--as did Janay "for my part"--which part America, disbelieving its ears, did not...see. Roger the Dodger however did see it that way, What way is that? Well, it was sort of a boys-will-be-grownup-musclebound-men and girls-will-be-provoking-part-playing-girls, and "Hey! She got her 'bell rung' okay? BIG DEAL." Sort of that way, Roger saw it. Roger suspended Rice for, I think it was, four games. Out of, I think it is, 18 games. Upon which a shit-storm of criticism, contempt and derision hit Roger upside the head. He took some smelling salts and kept on dodgin'. Until today.
Roger Goodell had not done what lawyers call his "due diligence" in "investigating" the elevator malfunction. Goodell had, get this, not seen the whole tape. "Noone in the NFL had." he said. How could that be? All of America could see that the thing was "caught on tape," that the camera that showed Rice dragging a lifeless Janay out of the elevator, said camera was positioned inside said elevator. "We asked for it (the whole tape), they never gave it to us," Roger avowed. Well, Monday, I think it was, TMZ, a media outlet, the media outlet that also made the Donald Sterling tapes public, TMZ asked the casino for the tape. And got it. Like lickedy-split.
?
Roger? How them smellin' salts workin', boy?
The aforesaid TMZ then published the whole tape.*
Roger had been forced to see enough and immediately and indefinitely suspended Rice for his gallantry. And kept saying, now utterly preposterously, that the NFL had too asked for the tape and they wouldn't give it to him. Frowny face. And noone in the NFL had seen the whole tape until TMZ
published it. That's what Roger the Dodger said.
Roger Goodell was proved a liar today. The Associated Press proved Goodell lied because AP found proof that the whole tape had been delivered to NFL headquarters in April and AP published a message left by an NFL staffer on the courier's voicemail, confirming receipt and acknowledging viewing it: "You're right. It's terrible."
One, but only one United States Senator, has recommended Goodell should "seriously consider" resigning. Goodell should seriously consider a lobotomy but he absolutely, positively has to go. Or be dragged out.
........
*This entire paragraph has been re-written. I recalled the tape incorrectly and described it inaccurately in the original post. On September 11 there were two more tapes revealed, one by TMZ has been made public, the other by AP apparently has not been made public but has been described by AP. The new TMZ tape, which I have seen ,is of higher quality, in color, and shows interaction between Rice and Janay before they entered the elevator. The new tape begins with Rice standing by a column, waiting for Janay, in a hallway leading to, and about 15-20 feet from, the elevators. At 8 seconds on the new TMZ tape Janay catches up to Rice who clearly, to me, spits in her face. Janay throws out her left arm striking Rice in neck area, perhaps the face, but it looks like the neck to me. Janay did not stop walking when she threw out her left arm at Rice and it is not a forceful strike. Janay continues walking and Rice follows after her a few steps behind. They enter the elevator together, Rice now right behind Janay. In the elevator, Rice appears, but it is not clear (to me) to spit in Janay's face again and to strike or push her. While Rice is at or near the opposite elevator wall from Janay, who then aggressively comes toward Rice. At 28 seconds, Rice throws a very quick, forceful punch, striking Janay in the face. She is clearly knocked unconscious before she falls to the floor.
The AP report describes the leadup to the knockout punch this way:
Ray Rice and Janay Palmer can be heard shouting obscenities at each other, and she appears to spit in the face of the three-time Pro Bowl running back right before he throws a brutal punch in a video shown to The Associated Press by a law enforcement official.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Ray Rice spat in the face of Janay Palmer the night he punched her in a hotel elevator, one current and one former security staffer at the Revel hotel told "Outside the Lines."
...
One former staffer said Rice, the former Baltimore Ravens running back, spat in his then-fiancée's face twice, "once outside the elevator and once inside," prompting her to retaliate with movements that were ultimately countered with a knockout punch.
Not so Roger Goodell. Commish of the National (tackle) Football League, Goodell inherited a disturbing epidemic, at least in awareness, of concussions from playing the sport in his league. Prominent ex-players have committed suicide, have suffered cognitive impairment obvious to those close to them, even those who hear them speak publicly. There have been lawsuits filed by ex-players and the concussions are a real crisis for Goodell. The NFL under Goodell has looked at the issue and has defended the suits with, "Concussion crisis? What concussion crisis? We don't see any concussion crisis." Such looking and disbelieving his lying eyes has, of course, meant that Goodell has presided over an increase in the incidence of concussions, causing a health crisis and a crisis for Goodell's credibility.
Which is also the way Goodell handled the matter of star player Ray Rice. Rice got into an incidence of domestic disquiet with his betrothed, then Rice and his soulmate got into an elevator, which elevator was inside a casino. Elevators are not equipped to calm the tempests of domestic discord, manifestly did not with Rice and Janay, but elevators in casinos are with cameras and Rice was observed on the cameras to be dragging the manifestly unconscious Janay out of the elevator. Rice admitted punching Janay in the elevator and apologized--as did Janay "for my part"--which part America, disbelieving its ears, did not...see. Roger the Dodger however did see it that way, What way is that? Well, it was sort of a boys-will-be-grownup-musclebound-men and girls-will-be-provoking-part-playing-girls, and "Hey! She got her 'bell rung' okay? BIG DEAL." Sort of that way, Roger saw it. Roger suspended Rice for, I think it was, four games. Out of, I think it is, 18 games. Upon which a shit-storm of criticism, contempt and derision hit Roger upside the head. He took some smelling salts and kept on dodgin'. Until today.
Roger Goodell had not done what lawyers call his "due diligence" in "investigating" the elevator malfunction. Goodell had, get this, not seen the whole tape. "Noone in the NFL had." he said. How could that be? All of America could see that the thing was "caught on tape," that the camera that showed Rice dragging a lifeless Janay out of the elevator, said camera was positioned inside said elevator. "We asked for it (the whole tape), they never gave it to us," Roger avowed. Well, Monday, I think it was, TMZ, a media outlet, the media outlet that also made the Donald Sterling tapes public, TMZ asked the casino for the tape. And got it. Like lickedy-split.
?
Roger? How them smellin' salts workin', boy?
The aforesaid TMZ then published the whole tape.*
Roger had been forced to see enough and immediately and indefinitely suspended Rice for his gallantry. And kept saying, now utterly preposterously, that the NFL had too asked for the tape and they wouldn't give it to him. Frowny face. And noone in the NFL had seen the whole tape until TMZ
published it. That's what Roger the Dodger said.
Roger Goodell was proved a liar today. The Associated Press proved Goodell lied because AP found proof that the whole tape had been delivered to NFL headquarters in April and AP published a message left by an NFL staffer on the courier's voicemail, confirming receipt and acknowledging viewing it: "You're right. It's terrible."
One, but only one United States Senator, has recommended Goodell should "seriously consider" resigning. Goodell should seriously consider a lobotomy but he absolutely, positively has to go. Or be dragged out.
........
*This entire paragraph has been re-written. I recalled the tape incorrectly and described it inaccurately in the original post. On September 11 there were two more tapes revealed, one by TMZ has been made public, the other by AP apparently has not been made public but has been described by AP. The new TMZ tape, which I have seen ,is of higher quality, in color, and shows interaction between Rice and Janay before they entered the elevator. The new tape begins with Rice standing by a column, waiting for Janay, in a hallway leading to, and about 15-20 feet from, the elevators. At 8 seconds on the new TMZ tape Janay catches up to Rice who clearly, to me, spits in her face. Janay throws out her left arm striking Rice in neck area, perhaps the face, but it looks like the neck to me. Janay did not stop walking when she threw out her left arm at Rice and it is not a forceful strike. Janay continues walking and Rice follows after her a few steps behind. They enter the elevator together, Rice now right behind Janay. In the elevator, Rice appears, but it is not clear (to me) to spit in Janay's face again and to strike or push her. While Rice is at or near the opposite elevator wall from Janay, who then aggressively comes toward Rice. At 28 seconds, Rice throws a very quick, forceful punch, striking Janay in the face. She is clearly knocked unconscious before she falls to the floor.
The AP report describes the leadup to the knockout punch this way:
Ray Rice and Janay Palmer can be heard shouting obscenities at each other, and she appears to spit in the face of the three-time Pro Bowl running back right before he throws a brutal punch in a video shown to The Associated Press by a law enforcement official.
The new TMZ video contains no audio, Janay does not appear to me to do any spitting, it is Rice who spits, and I disagree with the characterization that it was a "brutal" punch.
ESPN describes the spitting this way:
...
One former staffer said Rice, the former Baltimore Ravens running back, spat in his then-fiancée's face twice, "once outside the elevator and once inside," prompting her to retaliate with movements that were ultimately countered with a knockout punch.
That is the way I saw it. I do not know what the tape that AP reporters saw showed.
I do not see that Janay had any "part" in getting knocked unconscious by a punch thrown by her professional football playing husband. I see Ray Rice being the aggressor that night, from 8 seconds through 28 seconds of the new TMZ tape. However, it was not a "brutal" punch. If, as I recall, Rice was initially suspended for four games, that seems about right (to me). It does not seem right, it seems excessive, (to me) to indefinitely suspend Rice. Rice has also been "cut," i.e. had his contract with the Baltimore "Ravens" terminated.
