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opinion

The Ray Rice saga will surely go down as one of the darkest moments in the history of the National Football League. Not because of the deplorable conduct of one of the league's premier players, but rather because of the moral rot it has exposed in one of the world's most powerful sports organizations.

Mr. Rice isn't the first NFL player to hit his wife or girlfriend – just the first one unlucky enough to have it taped and exposed to the world. But domestic violence has largely been ignored by the league for years. Commissioner Roger Goodell's anemic response to the Rice incident when it first became public says all you need to know about how this league views violence against women.

Before now, the league's internal policy on domestic violence could be summed up as: "Hitting women ain't cool. When she provokes you, walk away." It's been a charade, along the same lines of Mr. Goodell's reaction to the first video that surfaced, showing Mr. Rice dragging the unconscious body of his fiancée out of a casino elevator.

When he met the commissioner to discuss the matter, how did Mr. Rice explain how his fiancée came to be in this condition? That she slipped and fell? We knew that's not what happened. The police report of the incident said Mr. Rice struck her with his hand, rendering her unconscious. Mr. Goodell knew this, but he originally suspended the Baltimore Ravens star for just two games. And yet, after the emergence of the second video, showing the actual punch, the commissioner said Mr. Rice had been "ambiguous about what actually happened" during their meeting. Ambiguous? If he was ambiguous, Mr. Goodell, it was only because you let him be.

Whatever the player's lame initial explanation, it was obviously good enough for the league.

You see, football needs stars like Ray Rice. Their talents are what sell the multibillion-dollar hype machine known as the NFL. So the league's pathetic reaction was no real surprise: The kid's sorry. He's getting counselling. Even his fiancée (now wife) has apologized for whatever role she may have played in inciting her boyfriend to knock her out. And he's going to miss two whole games. Isn't that good enough, people? Can't we all just move on?

It's an attitude reflected in recent comments by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, one of the most powerful people in the game. Asked what he thought of the second video, showing Mr. Rice clocking his fiancée with a stiff left hook, he said: "When you see that visually, it's such a turnoff."

A "turnoff"? Oh, my goodness.

The commissioner said the league tried but failed to obtain the critical second video that everyone knew existed. Now we learn that someone at the league received the video from a law-enforcement official months ago. Mr. Goodell has now asked a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate the league's "pursuit and handling of evidence in the Ray Rice domestic violence incident."

After that, perhaps the former director can investigate the league's overall handling of domestic violence cases. NFL players have suited up despite convictions for choking women, punching them, whipping them around like rag dolls and generally terrorizing them. A 2012 police report outlined an incident involving star Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant in which the player was alleged to have attacked his mother – his mother! – grabbing her by the arms and hair and slapping her across the face with his baseball hat several times. His domestic violence charges were dropped on the condition he get anger management counselling and not be charged with anything else within a year. The league did nothing.

The NFL has lost its way. An almost unparalleled cultural force, the league could do so much to educate the world about domestic violence and send a clear message that it won't be tolerated – but it has refused. It views the matter as an ugly distraction. The NFL cares more about the way its players are depicted in video games and on cereal boxes than it does about the way in which they conduct themselves in their homes.

And that's what some people might call a real turnoff.

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