Crime and Punishment

After reading the articles of all the links included in this blog, I realized that the issue of crime in sport is a lot more complicated than I thought. Each of the links seemed to focus on something different: how the NFL deals with crimes and how the punishment wasn’t harsh enough, how the public should respect the privacy of women and how the Janay Rice video shouldn’t have been publicized, and how the public reacts more harshly towards crimes committed by black athletes than white athletes. There’s so many factors involved in the discussion of Ray Rice’s particular incident and how it is talked about in media.

I think Ray Rice’s incident is reflective of broader trends in US sport, but I think it received a great amount of attention than previous cases of domestic violence. According to the New York Times, domestic violence is actually the most common reason for arrest among NFL athletes, even though the rate of committing this crime is less than the national average (Irwin, 2014). Despite it being lower than the national average, NFL players, as famous athletes that we watch on tv and look up to, should be held to a higher standard anyway. Other NFL players that have been convicted of murder or assault are Josh Brent, and Dwayne Goodrich, and these are only the big name ones that received long periods of probation. As one of authors of the link mentioned, there was visual and graphic evidence of Ray Rice’s crime, and his ethnicity might have had something to do with the heightened discussion of his actions. Also, the NFL’s punishment that many believe wasn’t harsh enough brought the issue even more attention, and it brought negative attention to the NFL as an industry as well.

Right now, it seems like there is media that both downplays Ray Rice’s actions as well as media that criticizes his actions. (I don’t know if it’s because the media that I’m exposed to has changed since the start of taking this class). For the most part though, I think both the NFL and media have downplayed the situation and have made it seem like it is not a big deal for good NFL players to be committing these kinds of crimes. Through this, the media reinforces that it is acceptable for these types of actions to be done if the offender is an athlete or someone of value to the NFL industry. It is promoting the notion that if you are talented in the way of what society values (you are good at making touchdowns or throwing the football), then you won’t get punished as harshly for committing domestic violence offenses.

These trends in criminal activity that are broadcasted about more often than these crimes committed by “regular” people (non-athletes) might be a result of the common nature of the background of these athletes. One of the links had an article that lightly touched on this, and it discussed how an upbringing of athletic success is coupled with a sense of entitlement, and the notion that one matters more than others and is valued more because of one’s athletic ability.

IRWIN, N. (2014, September 13). The Numbers Game. New York Times. p. D1.C