The entire Ray Rice situation has been a horrendous black eye to the sport of football and the NFL in general. From the video footage being leaked, to reports that the NFL had seen the video and still only handed Rice a two-game suspension, the national conversation has not been a good one for the league.
Fortunately, not everything from the situation is bad. First, Rice will no longer be in the league and is getting the punishment he deserves for his hideous actions. Secondly, according to a Huffington Post report, there has been a large increase in calls to the National Domestic Violence Hotline since footage of Rice’s attack was released.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline has seen an 84 percent increase in phone calls in the two days since a video leaked of former NFL player Ray Rice knocking his then-fiancée unconscious in an elevator.
Katie Ray-Jones, the CEO of the hotline, said it normally receives 500 to 600 calls a day from domestic violence victims and their concerned friends or family members. But after the Rice video was circulated online Monday, the hotline received over 1,000 phone calls. The numbers continued to climb on Tuesday.
“We had an outpouring of women saying, ‘Oh my god, I didn’t realize this happened to other people.’ They thought they were living a life that was very unique to them,” Ray-Jones told The Huffington Post. “One woman called in who is married to a [mixed martial arts] fighter. She said, ‘I just saw that video, and I know my husband could do worse, and I need help.”
Finally some good news comes out of this horrible situation. Hopefully more and more victims of domestic violence will continue to feel empowered enough to come forward in the future.
If you or anyone you know is a victim of domestic violence, you can reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.