Congressional pressure is building for hearings into the National Football League's disciplinary practices over domestic violence, triggered by a video of Baltimore Ravens star running back Ray Rice knocking his now-wife, Janay Palmer, unconscious with a left hook in an Atlantic City casino elevator.
The Hill reports that Becca Watkins, spokeswoman for Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, confirmed that the committee is
considering holding hearings into the league's initially soft penalty against Rice and exactly when football commissioners became aware of the beating video, which recently went public on TMZ.
While Watkins said in an email that no decision has been reached on whether to hold hearings, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-California, told The Hill that Issa told her he would hold them.
“The NFL’s failure to appropriately respond to crimes and misconduct has harmed the prestige of the game and the millions of Americans who look up to these players as role models," The Hill reported that Speier said in a statement.
"The NFL’s gross mishandling of the deplorable actions of Ray Rice is the latest example of how this insulated institution has incompetently dealt with serious issues."
Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colorado, also has pressed for a hearing,
Bloomberg News reports.
“We could play an important role in standing up for victims of domestic violence by asking professional sports leagues to explain in a public hearing how they are acting to educate their players about violence against women, what they are doing to prevent them from engaging in such violence and whether they are administering appropriate punishments for athletes who commit violence against women,” DeGette wrote.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, has spoken to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, telling him the NFL "has a serious problem with the treatment of women" and "plans to closely monitor these issues and the league's response," McCaskill spokesman John LaBombard told the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Initially, Goodell levied a two-game suspension against Rice after he was arrested following the elevator confrontation but, as the heat mounted for harsher punishment, Rice lost his contract with the Ravens and was suspended indefinitely.
The NFL announced that former FBI director Robert Mueller would head up an independent investigation into the incident and instituted a six-game suspension policy for players who commit domestic violence.
That still was not enough to satisfy 16 female senators, who wrote a blistering letter to Goodell demanding a zero tolerance policy against domestic violence from the NFL.
"We were shocked and disgusted by the images we saw this week of one of your players violently assaulting his now-wife and knocking her unconscious, and at new reports that the NFL may have received this video months ago," the letter states,
CBS News reports.
"Tragically, this is not the only case of an NFL player allegedly assaulting a woman even within the last year. We are deeply concerned that the NFL's new policy, announced last month, would allow a player to commit a violent act and return after a short suspension.
"If you violently assault a woman, you shouldn't get a second chance to play football in the NFL."
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