Like much of the country, we watched the University of Missouri’s President resign in awe. Did the football program really affect that sort of dramatic change that quickly?
Yes it did. However, as Jay Leno said on Bill Maher’s show the other night, Tim Wolfe would still be the President of the University of Missouri if the English Literature department said that they weren’t coming to work without a resignation. So what’s the difference? We know, we know, rhetorical question alert! But it’s not just that the football team has a large platform. Plenty of people with large platforms make news and then are forgotten about the next day. Remember Kim Davis, the lady who wouldn’t issue the gay marriage licenses? Neither do we. And there are countless other examples on both the left and right wing in society.
The Missouri football team’s threat to no show was a little different though. Had the team not taken the field for the next game, it would have meant a loss of at least $1 million, which is the sum Missouri would have had to pay BYU for their forfeit, per their contract. It’s not clear how much more revenue Missouri would have lost, but suffice to say, it would have been significant.
Lesson learned. As always, when money talks, those in power will listen. That got us to thinking about another large issue that has enveloped the world of sports in the not so distant past: Domestic violence.
Bob Costas told the viewers that Greg Hardy is a bad guy who is a great football player. He pointed out that the NFL tried to suspend him 10 games but the union appealed and the suspension was reduced to four games. Ok, but then, what followed was that Cris Collinsworth told his viewers how uncomfortable he was calling a game with Greg Hardy in it. So why was NBC airing the game?
The answer is obvious. Cash money. The Dallas Cowboys are a huge draw both because they have a huge fan base, but also, the team has always been compelling if nothing else. So NBC, which has complete control over which games appear on Sunday Night Football, has had the Cowboys on more times than I can count.
Last week we watched the Sunday Night Football game between Dallas and Philadelphia and it was unbelievably uncomfortable to see the camera follow Greg Hardy around the field. This is a man who was convicted by a trial judge of doing this to a woman. Hardy filed an appeal, which would have meant a trial by jury. However, the appeal never got to trial, reportedly because Hardy paid the victim, Nicole Holder, an undisclosed amount of money, after which she refused to show up or cooperate in any way. The charges were subsequently dropped and Hardy’s criminal record has been expunged.
The discomfort we felt while watching Hardy on Sunday Night Football made us think: What could we do to change the circumstances? We started thinking about the Missouri football team. How could we make the Cowboys and their attention-seeking owner Jerry Jones feel the hurt in their pockets for getting behind Greg Hardy? Cris Collinsworth told us how uncomfortable he was having to call a game with Greg Hardy in it. And who could blame him, Al Michaels, Bob Costas, Michele Tafoya, and the rest of the Sunday Night Football crew? So why don’t we make their jobs easier and encourage NBC to make sure that a game featuring Greg Hardy doesn’t happen again on their network?
Ask and ye shall receive. We just started a petition to encourage NBC to refrain from putting the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football for as long as we they employ Greg Hardy. Sure, it would be nice if we, the viewing public, could boycott the Cowboys, but let’s be honest, that ain’t happening. However, Sunday Night Football is an added privilege. Al Michaels indicated on the Dan Patrick Show that he hadn’t been to Chicago in a while because the Bears have not been any good and therefore, they have not been on Sunday Night Football.
Shouldn’t a team whose owner calls Greg Hardy a leader be stripped of the Sunday Night Football privilege? Doing so won’t solve domestic violence. It probably won’t stop Jerry Jones from signing Greg Hardy to a new long term deal. However, it will send a strong message from the sports community and nation at large that Greg Hardy is not the face we should be watching on primetime on a Sunday night. Owners might think twice about signing people if they realized not just the PR blowback they’d face, but also the hit to their bottom lines as well.
Certain individuals could fit into this mold as well. But Greg Hardy is a special case because he hasn’t paid his debt to society. Not even close. More than that, he remains without remorse. The only reason Greg Hardy is on a football field and not in a prison is because he can afford to pay good lawyers and large out of court settlements. That should not entitle him to the privileges that the NFL provides. It should be just the opposite. He should be shunned.
We encourage you, the reader, to think about ways you can affect change that is important to you and realize the collective power that we, the consumers, have with our collective pocketbooks. Signing my petition is a start. If you think of other causes important to you, just realize how much you can do, merely with your voice and the choices you make. We, the fans, have to start doing our part.
Pingback: Why Colin Kaepernick Can't Get an NFL Job - Rudin Writes