The story’s a couple of weeks old at this point but I still feel compelled to weigh in. Here’s Reason # 1,278,946 to detest the National Football League:
A star running back for the Kansas City Chiefs whaled the bejesus out of some young woman in a luxury Cleveland hotel hallway last winter. Friends tried to intervene, security responded, cops were called — the whole shmear. The Chiefs and the NFL got wind of the incident and shook their fingers at the player.
Oh, wait. They didn’t even go that far. Acc’d’g to a press release from the Chiefs, “several members of our management team spoke directly to him.”
Team Official: Did you do it?
Player: Nah, it was nothing.
Team Official: Okay.
Tough disciplinarians, eh?
But, y’know, boys’ll be boys. Football players earn their living through their brawn so this young fellow using his fists and feet in trying to impress his argument upon the 19-year-old woman in the hallway is…, well, understandable, right? Now stay out of trouble until this all blows over. And, by the way, make sure you get a thousand yards again for us this year, you rascal.
See, that’s how much the NFL cares about a young woman who says she was slapped, slugged, pushed to the floor repeatedly and kicked while she was down. Her ordeal is as nothing compared to the value of the running back’s thousand yards.
Ah, but then the running back committed a real sin in the eyes of the NFL. A security video of the beating somehow hit the streets. TMZ aired it and it’s a nauseating scene.
The Kansas City Chiefs responded accordingly. They cut the running back. He’s out of a job now.
Hell, no, they seem to be saying, we won’t tolerate this kind of thing!
I mean, beating the hell out of a woman is one thing; getting videoed doing it and having that video make the rounds…, son, we can’t have you around anymore.
I hereby renew my pledge never to give a dime of my hard-earned dough to the NFL.
▼
Animalese
I thought you might get a kick out of this:
[ h/t to reporter Eric Zorn. ]
▼
The Birds, The Bees and the Monkees
From the fifth studio album of one of my very favorite ’60s bands.
▲