A crying shame
Published September 12, 2014
Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, September 12, 2014.
Somebody, please, pass Jerry Richardson a tissue.
The Carolina Panthers’ owner teared up in Charlotte Wednesday while accepting “the Echo Award Against Indifference.”
Then he lamely defended his own indifference.
“When it comes to domestic violence, my stance is not one of indifference,” Richardson said, his voice choking. “I stand firmly against domestic violence, plain and simple.”
Really? Then why hasn’t Richardson done more than nothing after one of his players, star defensive end Greg Hardy, was convicted in July on two counts of domestic abuse?
Hardy’s case has received mounting scrutiny following the National Football League’s decision to impose a much stiffer penalty in the case of the Baltimore Ravens’ Ray Rice. Rice’s original, two-game suspension was extended to an indefinite one by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell following the release of a graphic video Monday that showed Rice punching his then-fiancee, Janay Palmer, in a casino elevator.
The Ravens also acted, cutting Rice after the vicious left jab that knocked Palmer unconscious went viral on the Web. It was about time.
Still unsettling is that it took that video, released by the gossip website TMZ, to convince the league and the Ravens, finally, to take decisive action.
Previously released video from an angle outside of the elevator already had made it clear that Rice had struck Palmer, now his wife, so hard that she crumpled to the floor like a rag doll. Those images also depicted Rice showing no alarm, concern or remorse as he dragged her off the elevator as if she were a sack of potatoes or a piece of luggage.
Rice should have received the tougher penalty even if the second video had never been released.
Meanwhile, only a few miles south off I-85, Hardy continues to play for the Panthers.
The team has the power to impose punishment on its own even if the league doesn’t act. It could bench Hardy pending the appeal of his conviction, which likely won’t be heard until after the season. Or it could follow the Ravens’ lead and release him outright.
Instead, Richardson weeps as he twiddles his thumbs.
The team has defended its inaction by citing Hardy’s entitlement to due process. The San Francisco 49ers used the same argument following the Aug. 31 arrest of Ray McDonald, a defensive end, for allegedly assaulting his pregnant fiancee. McDonald’s first court date is Monday.
But Hardy already has been arrested, tried and convicted.
There is no video footage in the Hardy case. But there were disturbing 911 tapes and chilling testimony.
For the Panthers, this should be an especially sensitive matter. Former wide receiver Rae Carruth is serving 18 to 24 years in a Harnett County state prison after being found guilty of conspiring to murder a woman who was eight months’ pregnant with his child in 1999. Cherica Adams died in a hail of bullets fired by a hit man hired by Carruth. The child survived, but with severe disabilities.
Incidentally, Goodell was scheduled to attend the dinner honoring Richardson for promoting “human dignity, justice and moral courage.” Upon further review, the commissioner canceled, apparently realizing that this video wouldn’t have been good news for his league, either.
