One of the things Stephen A. Smith's comments did was take away pressure from Roger Goodell—the man who arguably deserved the brunt of the criticism. Goodell's short two-game suspension for Ray Rice's domestic violence incident, which is shorter than the one year Josh Gordon faces for marijuana and the five games Albert Haynesworth got for dragging his cleat across an opposing player's face. Keith Olbermann thinks enough is enough.
Goodell's calloused defense of his decision didn't help things either; he said he thought the suspension showed the NFL has "a very firm policy that domestic violence is not acceptable" (he wasn't joking). Comments and actions like that convinced Olbermann that Goodell needed to resign after serving as commissioner since 2006:
“It’s consistent with other cases in that the NFL consistently refuses to significantly punish domestic violence abuse…. If there had been some recognition, some form of acknowledgement if only to the women fans of the NFL that this two-game suspension is a virtual attack on them, perhaps these following words would not be necessary. But for the sake of the NFL, and more importantly, for the sake of those women and all others and all of us in a country in which this is so much more than a mere sports league, it is necessary Mr. Goodell for you to now resign as its commissioner.”
Whether Goodell needs to retire is debatable; people were split on Smith's comments—some called for a firing. The idea that the domestic violence issue runs deeper than a sports league isn't as debatable, however. Check out his comments above.
[via For The Win]
