When the NFL fails to take a hard line stance on player misconduct, it sets poor examples for both young fans and upcoming talent.
By sometimes giving harsher punishments to players who gamble as opposed to players infamous for sexually assaulting and physically abusing people, the NFL continues to cultivate a machismo culture and environment that fails to treat sexual assault as the sickening crime that it is.
On March 7, 2022, Atlanta Falcons receiver Calvin Ridley was suspended indefinitely for betting $1,500 while he was on leave for mental health issues during the 2021 season, directly violating the NFL’s gambling policy.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “the league’s fear is that if a player gambles, he’ll go into debt, be compromised and somehow be tempted to shave a game,” meaning that a player will influence other players to make the final score end in a favorable way to their bets.
Along with being suspended, Ridley did not receive his salary of $11.1 million.
However, when NFL free-agent Adrian Peterson was charged with felony child abuse in 2014, the NFL placed him on the Commissioner Exempt List, where a player is put on paid administrative leave.
Two months later, he was taken off of the list and suspended for the rest of the 2014 season.
Later, in 2022, Peterson was arrested again at the Los Angeles International Airport for what airport officials called “a verbal and physical altercation between a male suspect and a female victim.”
After being released on $50,000 bail, Peterson played the rest of the season, continuing his football career.
The fact that the NFL allowed Peterson to continue playing football while Ridley was not allowed to finish his season suggests that the NFL views assault as less serious an offense as gambling, therefore deserving of a lesser punishment.
The examples of the NFL tolerating assaulters doesn’t end there.
In March 2021, a sexual assault lawsuit was filed against Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson.
The NFL suspended Watson for only 11 games and fined him $5 million.
Watson also had 24 other lawsuits filed against him, 20 of which were settled in June 2021.
Amidst all of this, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam said in a press conference that Watson “deserves a second chance.”
“I really think that and I struggle a little bit—Is he never supposed to play again?” Haslam said.
Um, yes.
The NFL’s leniency towards players who have assaulted and physically harmed others is astounding. The NFL needs to get its priorities straight and stop selling out for the money and ratings.