NFL Fallout and the Domestic Violence Discussion

This is the second full weekend of the National Football League’s 2014 season… but nobody’s talking about the games. Outrage continues to pour forth after the release this week of a videotape taken inside an elevator where Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice is seen punching his then-fiancee, now-wife, in an Atlantic City hotel back in February.

It’s the prelude to a tape published by TMZ four days after the assault that showed him dragging her out of that elevator. Prosecutors offered Rice a plea bargain of no jail time if he went to anger management counseling.

In late July, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Rice for two games, prompting a flurry of criticism that the punishment was too lenient. In August, Goodell admitted to NFL owners that he "didn’t get it right," and instituted a mandatory six-game suspension for first-time domestic abusers.

When the new video came to light this week, Goodell suspended Rice indefinitely, and came under renewed fire over what he knew and when he knew it, including calls for his resignation. The topic of domestic abuse now stands front and center—on the 50-yard-line, if you will—in any discussion of the NFL.

Today on the program: Misogyny in sports, blaming the victim, and where fans fit in the implicit condoning of violence as entertainment.