What sports-journalists can do
[Jeff Passan, thank you]
A while ago, I wrote about how in professional sports, crimes like domestic violence, rape and sexual assault aren’t taken seriously so much as they’re immediately forgiven if not ignored by the teams, the players, the fans and the media. In the bigs of the NBA, the MLB and the NFL, male athletes who commit domestic violence against their wives or girlfriends are especially given little (if any) penalty or consequence. In other words, the sports world condones the abusive behavior of their male “role models” with their silence and unwillingness to act and speak out against violence against women.
One of the things I pointed out was that while most people in the sports world (and world in general) say “hey, it’s not my business” or “let the law take care of it,” the reality is that every single person in any aspect of the NFL, MLB or NBA can play a part in confronting it. I said very specifically that it is absolutely crucial that sports news agencies and sports writers do not hesitate to write, follow up and make harsh judgements about batterers because when you’re not squelched by Bud Selig or David Stern, you can say what Jeff Passan boldly is in effect saying about Dukes, the Devil Rays and the MLB in his Yahoo! sports column: you’re all full of shit if you’re going to let this guy threaten to kill his ex-wife and do nothing about it.
There aren’t many sports writers with the guts to be honest and say something like this but i’m glad that for today at least, someone did.