Not Enough – John Muzzy Unmuzzled [Opinion]

This week John Muzzy is fired up, and wait till you see why! It has to do with Ray Rice only getting a two game suspension for striking his fiance, while some players may never play again in the NFL for smoking pot!

As time goes by it seems that the general public has become increasingly accepting of smoking marijuana. We see it constantly in movies, we hear celebrities talk about it on television, and few seem to be adamantly against its legalization at this point. There are even two states in this country in which it is completely legal to smoke marijuana. Now none of the previous statements can be made regarding domestic abuse. However, the NFL made it very clear today that it is much worse to light up a joint than it is to hit a woman. Back in February Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens was arrested for striking his fiancé in an elevator in Atlantic City. A video tape shows him dragging her limp body out of that elevator and trying to move her while she remained virtually motionless. Today the NFL announced that heinous crime deserves a two game unpaid suspension and a $58,000 fine. Back to the weed real quick. Josh Gordon and Justin Blackmon, both wide receivers, may potentially never play in the NFL again due to smoking weed. That’s right, they may NEVER PLAY AGAIN. Now don’t get me wrong, what they did was stupid, but are you kidding me? They got high, it was dumb and irresponsible, but in no way should that even be remotely comparable to hitting a woman. Meanwhile, here’s Rice, a man who put his fiancé in the hospital, getting a metaphoric slap on the wrist. Rice will only lose a little of half a million dollars in salary, a small fortune to most of us but merely pocket change to him.  Not only should Ray Rice be suspended for at least a season, he should have to face the jail time the way any regular person who isn’t loaded with cash should have to face.

Just a few months ago the NFL had one of the most progressive moments when Michael Sam became the first openly gay player to be taken in the draft, now fast forward to today and they’ve virtually erased all that good will by being completely arrogant and insensitive. Kids watch ESPN, kids own Ray Rice jerseys, and today the NFL said to those kids that what Ray Rice did isn’t all that bad. They’ve shown hitting a woman isn’t as bad as Terrelle Pryor selling his autographs when he was in college, something he received a five game suspension for. For lack of a better pun, the NFL could’ve only dropped the ball worse in this situation if they hadn’t suspended Ray Rice at all. So congratulations Roger Goodell and the NFL, you had an opportunity to take a stand and show that this league does not tolerate genuine criminals and you blew it.