The significance of domestic violence has been hyped for quite some time now, especially in professional sports.
To take a strong stance against it has become a measurement of one’s masculinity among athletes, it would seem.
I applaud professional athletes and leagues toughening up on domestic violence and weeding its perpetrators out of their sports. Now, why can’t they apply those same principles to the cause of life?
Where are all the athletes and professional leagues’ voices when it comes to the ultimate case of domestic violence: abortion?
Crickets. You hear nothing.
It is just not the “in” thing to do, sadly.
INSTANCES OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN PROFESSIONAL SPORTS
The most infamous recent example of domestic violence came from Ray Rice. Last season he was the starting running back for the Baltimore Ravens. This season he remains unemployed.
Rice was filmed on a hotel elevator beating his wife. The video went viral and Rice was suspended by the league. He has since entered counseling, to his credit, and has issued a public apology.
Greg Hardy, a defensive end, lost his job with the Carolina Panthers. He was found guilty of assault. Having played just one game last season, Hardy signed on with the Dallas Cowboys this season.
Running back Adrian Peterson knocked around one of his children and as a result was suspended by the NFL last season. He played just one game last season before having to sit out the rest of the year. He won his appeal and eventually his suspension was overturned. He will rejoin the Minnesota Vikings this season.
Other examples in the NFL and other professional leagues are aplenty. The NFL toughened up its policy on the matter. Major League Baseball, not known to have nearly as many instances, recently followed suit. They changed their policy too.
The significance of domestic violence is not unique to male athletes either. Brittney Griner, a popular Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) player, recently committed abuse against her lesbian lover, Glory Johnson.
These two women were barely into their pseudo-“marriage,” when they had the cops called on them for a domestic dispute. Court proceedings and league suspensions followed. Griner announced she was seeking an annulment (yes, an annulment) from her “wife,” Johnson. This occurred the day after Johnson announced she was pregnant with “their” baby. Did you follow all that?
NARY A WORD ON ABORTION
Contrast that to the sports leagues’ responses to the horror of abortion.
Louisville Cardinals head basketball coach, Rick Pitino admitted in 2009 to having had promiscuous sex and then paying for the abortion of his child. Where’s the outrage among these tough men who claim to care about the weak and vulnerable?
Paul George, a star for the Indiana Pacers of the NBA, was accused of getting a stripper pregnant and offering her a million dollars to have their baby butchered by abortion. Why is this guy considered a hero worth emulating by the sports media?
NBA reserve, JJ Redick is said to have had an “abortion contract” with her ex-girlfriend. The man makes over a million dollars a year shooting a ball through a suspended net. Yet he isn’t man enough to care for any child that he might father through his sexual exploits?
I could go on, but you get the idea.
JUST LOOKING FOR CONSISTENCY
The professional leagues’ stiffening of penalties for abusers rightly highlights the significance of domestic violence.
This is worth applauding.
No one, no matter what they did, deserves to be hit or smacked around or berated.
On this we can all agree.
But why, I must ask, can we not be consistent and apply this same standard toward all children? Why are the unborn children not worthy of our protection?
If your professional league was man enough, it too would be advocating for the end to abortion. It would be looking to root out from its ranks those who pay to have their own children murdered.
Oh, but wait, that’s right. Sadly, that’s not the politically correct thing to do.
As fighting mad as you got about Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, and the like, why aren’t you demanding answers from Rick Pitino and men like him?
I guess we’ll just go on all lying to ourselves pretending like these sports leagues are so commendable. And we’ll wonder to ourselves how many more things remain out there worth getting up in arms about, besides the holocaust that abortion is.
YOUR TURN
Please chime in on the significance of domestic violence professional leagues have been ramping up.
You can leave your comment below.
