When it was released that Ray Rice had knocked his then fiancé unconscious, people were expecting him to go to jail… well that didn’t happen, instead he entered a court appointed program that resulted in the dismal of his assault charges. Well surely the NFL would have made sure that he will be justifiably punished? No, according to the NFL he only recieved a two game suspension, he was a first time offender and they felt that was enough. People weren’t too happy with the rulings and started to speak out about how domestic violence isn’t being justified not only in the courts but especially with the NFL not doing more.
Mike Vick comes into play because he’s no stranger to scrutiny of the public. While he yet to reach his glory days of before he went to jail for animal cruelty He recently spoke to NJ.com and gave a couple of pointers to Ray Rice:
“I think the most important thing that you can do is to try to make amends for what you’ve done,” Vick told NJ.com. “I think you have to show people that you’re trying to help yourself and bring awareness to that situation to help others, to prevent it. You’ve got to become an advocate.”
“You’ve got to continue to make amends,” Vick said. “Once you start something, you can never go back. I feel like I’ve become an advocate of animal welfare, and I think I have to continue that. It’s all about keeping kids 15 years from now from doing the same. We’ve saved a lot of kids, and we’ve saved a lot of animals. That’s how I feel. Ray will make it right.”
Vick is absolutely right, while it seems weird for some one who knocked his wife out to speak against domestic violence, its something that needs to be acknowledge. Its the elephant in the room. Rice and his wife should frequent women shelters and outreach groups that advocate for healthy relationships. Rice can turn this into something positive, lately there seems to be an alarming rate of women being beaten by athletes and its not be rectified. Hopefully Rice will take heed and listen to Vick, it can cripple him forever or be something that can turn a negative into a positive.
(H/T ProFootballTalk)