It's not Roger Goodell, and it's not Ray Rice. It's us.

As long as there's a shit-ton of money out there buying tickets, apparel, and eyes watching games players will misbehave. Oh hell, they'll misbehave whether we're there or not. They're people like us, and we misbehave. Ray Rice, sadly, wasn't the first person to hit his fiance/wife. Adrian Peterson was not the first person to whip a 4 yr old with a switch either. Roger Goodell, and Ravens ownership weren't the first people to try to sweep the issue under the rug, and hope it goes away either. Penn State anyone?

Elite athletes who make universities, and professional franchise owners piles - PILES - of money are coddled. They have been for a long time. Owners want their stars on the field because they sell tickets, apparel, and drive ratings. Why are we even surprised that there was a video of one of them punching his fiance? I'm surprised this didn't happen years ago. As shitty as what Ray Rice did was, at least he didn't lie about it - which is the only positive you can credit it him for. So the Ravens wanted to put this to bed before it blew up. Roger Goodell works for the owners, and he decided to help the owner put it away. He perpetuated the status-quo. It was the same way Florida State did a half-assed investigation into the Jameis Winston rape allegation last year. It was the same way Penn State looked the other way in the Sandusky episode. The program and the franchise are gold mines to a lot of people, and if your access to a gold mine depends on you looking the other way, as we've seen, too many people are willing to get along to get along.

You could google and find out how many arrests NFL players have. Never mind. San Diego Union-Tribune did it. I'm reminded of the Col Jessup monologue from A Few Good Men; "Deep down inside, you don't wanna know." So, yes, athletes do the same terrible things that many others do, but WE coddle them, because WE want our teams to win, not because we don't care, but indirectly because we buy tickets to winning teams, and jerseys of winning players, and tune in to games of those teams and players more than other teams with smaller stars, and fewer wins. Owners, boosters, GMs, university presidents, and commissioners know this. Knowing this they've sheltered people that do monstrous things from real consequences so their gold mine is protected.

So instead of getting all indignant about these people while wearing a jersey, tuned in to a game, maybe we should not look the other way when we see some child, or woman with a suspicious bruise.