The Super Bowl that is happening later today is the biggest game all year for the NFL. Ah, the National Football League. So distinctly…. American. Like most distinctly American things, it has its fair share of pretty awful moments.
1. Football Coaches Refusing to Sign Black Players
Okay, this one goes way back to the early days of the NFL and somehow continued to exist until the 1960s. George Preston Marshall, owner and president of the Washington Redskins, managed to place an unofficial, unwritten ban on black players being signed to the NFL in 1933. Owners of other teams complied with the ban until the Los Angeles Rams signed Kenny Washington, the first ever African-American to be signed on a professional NFL contract. Before you get too excited for the Los Angeles Rams, it’s worth noting that the only reason they did it was because the commissioner of the stadium they wanted required them to sign at least one black player to their team in order to play at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Meanwhile, George Preston Marshall refused to sign a black player until he was ordered to by the Attorney General in 1962. But by all means, continue to tell me that the Redskins was not formed (or named) from a place of racism.
2. Almost Everything About the Ray Rice Assault Case
Fast forward about fifty years and that brings me to Ray Rice. You didn’t think Ray Rice wouldn’t make it onto this list, right? By now the case of Ray Rice is familiar to almost everyone: (now former) Baltimore Ravens Running Back was shown in leaked footage to have dragged his then fiancee (now wife), Janay Palmer, out of an elevator after beating her unconscious in 2014. What followed was a mess of the Ravens and the NFL coming to his defense and righteous outrage from football fans everywhere. The NFL initially suspended Rice for two games, followed by the NFL announcing their new policy on domestic violence that suspends players for six games on a first time offense, and bans them for life on a second. Which would be a step up if they actually followed their own policy, but many players get reduced suspensions. Following Rice’s suspension, he was released from the Ravens and suspended indefinitely from the NFL. Rice appealed the indefinite suspension, however, and won, making him technically eligible to sign with a team.
3. The Suspension of Seantrel Henderson for Marijuana Use
Buffalo Bills’ Seantrel Henderson was suspended in November of 2016 for ten games using marijuana, and therefore violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. Not only was he suspended for using marijuana, but he was suspended for using doctor-prescribed, medicinal marijuana. Henderson was prescribed the marijuana to treat his Crohn’s disease and the pain from two surgeries he had underwent due to the disease. Yes, you read that right.
The NFL actually gave a player using medical marijuana a longer suspension than they did a player on video dragging his unconscious fiancee.
Here I was under the impression that domestic violence was a bit worse than weed, silly me.
From its mere conception, the NFL has had problems and controversies and while it has certainly taken a lot of important steps since its founding in 1920, it needs to do better next season.
