Appalling video: A sign that we have something rotten in professional athletics

Want to know what happens when you set up a culture where professional athletes have money heaped upon them and learn that the rules do not apply to them?

Want to know what happens when winning is much, much more important than character?

Want to know what happens when you make young men gods simply because they can throw or catch a football or hit a jumpshot?

Then look at the sordid case of Baltimore Raven Ray Rice.

Caught on video dragging his then-girlfriend out of an elevator, he was sentenced to a two-game suspension.

Now, we find out that it was much worse than that. He punched his girlfriend in that elevator.

Rice will likely find himself in more than a heap of trouble -- as he should. His indefinite suspension from the NFL is the least of his concerns now.

The real question is, though, why is this video just surfacing now -- and who made sure it stayed hidden through the initial investigation.

Refer back to statements one, two and three above.

Rice is not a misunderstood youth. He is a violent abuser -- and there is a video to prove it. If he were anyone else, he would be in jail.

It is time to stop accepting this sort of behavior -- and others that are similarly disgusting -- from professional athletes.

It is also time to put some honor back in the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball.

And the first step to make that happen is to put up a sign that says "no thugs need apply."

Published in Editorials on September 9, 2014 11:03 AM