Ray Rice You know how agitated we get by football; when our teams dont win? We are just watching from afar. Magnify that a thousand percent when it has become your whole life. Imagine it is something that you have been groomed since childhood to excel at. Imagine that your whole identity, livelihood and life purpose depends on your ability to play it consistently at the top of your game. Imagine that a whole group of similarly vested men that you respect as your brothers in arms depends on you playing at the top of your game. Imagine that the other teams are trying to destroy you and your brothers every week and it is either them or you. Imagine yourself in a pseudo death match while drunken clueless multitudes watch for their amusement. Know they vacillate between idolizing or demonizing you. Imagine that there is a whole society of such warriors that have survived this process, condone the process and are still plugged into the process in some way or another. Imagine the insanity of getting immersed in the game but having trouble dealing with all that it entails emotionally and psychologically. Roger Goodell dropped the ball on this. Ray Price was used as a pawn. He needs to be embraced back into the society of football somehow. Not because his actions werent horrendous, but because he is only one of many who are buckling under the pressure that being a superstar playing machine creates. The shame should not be his alone. The shame should be on the whole dynamics of the grinding machine of the business of football. Not one man who was stressed beyond a breaking point. Shame on the business of football who sees the cracks in these dynamic individuals and does a patchwork job on them just so they can eek the best stats out of them for one more week. Shame on them for ignoring the warning signs when they see one of their brethren succumbing to the pressure. Shame on them for putting a win before a players best interest. Roger Goodell is scrambling to look like a shift is happening in the business of football. But it is not. They are propping woman in visible positions to the game but we all know that this is not going to be effective. Here is what Roger Goodell does not realize. That the lack of woman visible in the game of football is symbolic of football being void of female energy. Female energy can be infused in the game of football simply by shifting priorities somewhat. Male energy sacrifices individuals to the game.. Female energy nurtures all players. Male energy is slow to admit its faults. Female energy will take responsibility for things she isnt even responsible for. Male energy only values the win. Female energy values the goodwill and interaction that the game creates. Male energy expects everyone to toughen up. Female energy embraces the vulnerable sides of a person. Female energy nurtures. Male energy punishes. Both are necessary if football is going to thrive in the new paradigm. Here is what should happen. Teams have all kinds of health practitioners on staff to care for the physical well being of the player. They should also have psychologists, and all kinds of alternative practitioners available to the players who show signs of stress. ( I personally would LOVE to help some of these players happily stay on their A game) The other players know when someone is cracking. They should be held responsible to help their fellow players get help. There should be mandatory group counseling for families that show signs of stress. Players emotional and mental well being should be maintained at the same level of quality of care as their physical body. There should be some form of accountability for a players actions. There should be a mandatory restriction from playing for any infraction of the law, drug abuse or domestic violence. All players should be held to the same high standards so that the consequences are taken seriously. There should be high penalties to attached to those who dont comply. The penalties should include something more than financial sanctions. The amount of penalties for infractions should influence draft picks or another form of football currency. Please stop hating on Ray Rice. It is painful to see what this has done to his family. His wife is being punished for his actions as well. They are a young couple and need to have their growing pains. Having all that they have worked for be burned up in his jersey is short sighted and cruel. This is a demonstration of male energy doing what male energy untempered by female energy does. As a representative of female energy, I send love to Ray and his family. I hold the best intentions for him. I encourage Roger Goodell to do the right thing and find a way to make things right for Ray and his family. My hope is that Ray returns to football, gets counseling, redeems his reputation and all those who did NOT burn his jersey, have a priceless piece of memorabilia.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 21:38:07 +0000
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