Francisco Rodriguez and domestic violence

The issue of domestic violence has become predominant in the sports world recently with three different cases involving NFL players, most notably the long running saga of Ray Rice. It brought to mind the issues that Francisco Rodriguez had as a Met and subsequently with the Brewers.

The memories of Rodriguez’s involvement with this issue while a member of the New York Mets are not some of the best in the past five years. For those who have forgotten, in short, Rodriguez assaulted the father of his longtime girlfriend and was subsequently arrested. He was not given any jail time and was mandated to anger management classes. A year later while with the Brewers Rodriguez physically assaulted his girlfriend and was again arrested. Considering that he’s still pitching for the Brewers and is the teams current closer, it’s obvious that not much came of this second assault.

Both of these incidents, along with Rice and various other incidents throughout the history of professional sports, illustrate an issue that, hopefully, will now finally get the preeminence it deserves. Domestic violence is a horrendous issue that is unfortunately predominant in many households. It’s not always the Rice or Rodriquez situation, where adults are attacking adults, but also falls into the realm of child abuse, where a child is being beaten in the same vicious way that Rice hit his then fiancée in that elevator in Atlantic City. This level of belligerence in the home is one of the great unspoken atrocities of this country and when players like Rodriguez have it, in essence, swept under the carpet, it only furthers the world of silence that, so often, surrounds domestic violence and makes sure that it continues unchecked.

In writing for this blog, I don’t talk much about my personal life. However, with this issue, I feel the need to illustrate why I feel so strongly about this issue. I work on a regular basis with children and adults who have been the subject of such violent interactions in the home. Such things lead to an almost unlimited amount of behavior issues among children, as well as an inability to respect the opposite sex and a fear or abhorrence of authority figures in general, not to forget the fact that it leads to those children experiencing a much more extreme level of violent interaction with others. Children are highly susceptible to witnessing these acts or being the subject of them and the ramifications are endlessly negative. One of the most upsetting things I ever have to do is talk with a child who has experienced violence in the home and see the distance and loss that is the result of that action.

Athletes have the responsibility to be role models to the communities in which they primarily display their craft. It might not be fair, and many of these individuals might not feel ready for such responsibility, but it is theirs and they don’t have a choice in the matter. Children and adults alike look up to these people, put them on pedestals and are willing to forgive and forget so much. Such was the case last night, when various fans attended the Ravens Steelers game wearing Rice jersey’s and gave interviews advocating for their hero. The problem with such sentiment, especially the fan who intimated that it was ok for Rice to hit his wife because she spit on him, only perpetuates the real problem, which is domestic violence itself. Athletes need to be held to a higher standard and if the fans aren’t going to do so, then the organizations the team plays for and the sport that sets the rules on the athletes they employ need to do so.

It boggles the mind that Rice gets support and Barry Bonds gets booed. Doesn’t anyone else see how backwards that is? Was it ok for Bonds to use performance enhancing drugs? No, of course not, but Bonds has been blacklisted from baseball and, despite being arguably the greatest player of his generation, is considered a pariah around the game. Is that ok, when Kirby Puckett is in the hall of fame, despite the fact that while he was playing he allegedly strangled his wife with a telephone cord? Is it ok that baseball has blacklisted Pete Rose for betting on baseball, but in 2006 allowed Brett Myers to start the next day after being arrested for beating his wife in front of witnesses? In 2005 Milton Bradley had police at his home multiple times for domestic violence calls, but no action was taken by major league baseball, yet they suspend players for appearing in a notebook related to performance enhancing drugs from the Biogensis scandal. I’m not saying that Pucket doesn’t deserve to be in the hall of fame, that Rose’s banning isn’t justified or that it’s ok for players to use performance enhancing drugs, but it’s hard to fathom sometimes what’s considered important in the sports world and what isn’t.

Google any of the major sports and domestic violence and you will see a rash of incidents that occurred without any ramifications from the sports that those players were associated with. Considering what these people mean to their fans, as illustrated yesterday by the reactions of Ravens fans, it is an absolute travesty that domestic violence has so often been made to be unimportant by Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, Professional Boxing and professional sports organizations in general.

Hopefully the attention Rice is getting will change some of this, because the level of defense that has been put out there for athletes who have committed these horrendous acts is sickening and just making less of a problem that is an unseen epidemic. What happened to Rodriguez, an anger management class, an apology and a new contract, only let Rodriguez and other such perpetrators of violence know that it was okay to do it again, as Rodriguez showed no more than a year later.

In the end, for all of those out there who think this isn’t a problem or this is okay, go talk to someone who has been beaten by their loved one and got away, or a child who saw his father throw his mother through a window or was beaten so badly by an uncle that the child still has scars and fear in his or her eyes over a decade later. I’ve seen that, and I’ll never forget it. What Rice and Rodriguez and hundreds of other athletes did and were allowed to get away with is repulsive to me and to all others who understand how serious this issue is. To support such players is a dark stain on professional sports and fandom in general. Everyone has the right to make their own choices in this world, but sometimes those choices are wrong and need to be called out in that way.

Rice will get another contract. So did Rodriguez. Does that let the world know that what they did was ok?

Let’s hope that now, the professional sports world with all of its power, will use it for something good. All of these multi-billion dollar organizations have an opportunity to change the world. Let’s hope the horrible video in the elevator does that and isn’t forgotten like Rodriguez and too many others.