I know not everybody who follows me, follows sports. But this is simple, and you don't even have to appreciate touchdowns to get on board with this.
Recently Ray Rice, a running back for the Baltimore Ravens, got into some trouble with the law for domestic abuse. The National Football League, for whom Ray wears a uniform, has long been known for being strong in punishments that effect their image. They suspended Ray for two games and then everybody lost their minds.
ESPN voices all over said the punishment wasn't large enough and the NFL missed an opportunity to send a message about how women should be treated. I tend to agree.
But one guy stood out above the rest, in my opinion. It was Herm Edwards, a former coach, and now an analyst working for ESPN. Herm was asked about the punishment and he talked of a similar situation when he was a coach, one in which one of his players was also caught mistreating a lady in public. Herm talked about how the league was slow in offering any punishment. But that didn't stop Herm.
He sat his player for 3 weeks and it didn't matter to him what the league did. Herm, as coach, was in a unique position to make a decision about this. As coach, he had the right to not play this player. He informed the player that he would be expected to practice hard, but that he would not be playing on Sundays. Herm, looking back on the incident, said that his moral code would not allow him to do any less.
He reiterated that it did not matter to him what decision the league was going to come up with. I think this is very good advice.
We cannot make every decision for everybody. But there are decisions that only we can make. Nobody can make it for us and it is up to us to make the right decision.
So what decision do you need to make?
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