WASHINGTON, D.C. – The NFL has once again proven where its priorities lie: with profits, not people.
When Cleveland Brown’s defensive end Myles Garrett rips off an opposing quarterback’s helmet and hits him with it during a nationally televised game, he immediately gets suspended for the rest of the season. Fox Commentator Joe Buck called the incident “one of the worst things I’ve ever seen on a professional sports field.”
But, what if the violent, out of control player is off the field, and the person impacted is someone not on the NFL’s payroll? If a player is charged with domestic violence or sexual assault, team owners and NFL leadership drag their feet, put up smokescreens and spend a fortune on PR campaigns to avoid dealing with the league’s endemic domestic violence problem.
We’ve seen player after player accused of violence against women allowed to return to the playing field, while nothing is done to help survivors, or to change the NFL’s culture of domestic violence.
NOW calls on the NFL to correct this double standard. When violence against women is treated with less concern than a player’s swing of a helmet, there’s something deeply wrong with the NFL—and women know it.
Football was once called America’s game—but it’s rapidly become America’s shame. Enough is enough.