Commissioner Roger Goodell and the National Football League’s biggest blunder in recent years has been its seemingly tolerance towards domestic violence. Starting with the infamous Ray Rice incident, the NFL has suffered numerous black eyes after treating incident after incident with poor judgement and unjust and untimely punishment.
Sunday night, Chief’s 5th round pick, Tyreek Hill had a game for the history books, scoring a touchdown via a kick, pass, and run in the same game. Hill’s most notable play was captured as he high-fived his teammate prematurely to scoring.
The NFL then used that image for their official Twitter account, which still remains.
Disregarding the NFL’s intolerance for players celebrating on the field yet promoting those very actions by using images of such on their social media accounts, the NFL is now promoting a player who pled guilty to domestic violence, leading to Hill getting kicked off the Oklahoma State football team two years ago.
The Chiefs were criticized by their fans for taking Hill for these reasons, even if he had dropped into a later pick. Hill’s history of domestic violence included punching his pregnant girlfriend in the stomach and choking her.
For reference, Hill’s incident occurred in the same year that Grey Hardy notably assaulted his girlfriend. Hill reached a plea agreement and is currently serving three years’ probation, while Hardy is now the most despised football player in recent memory, blackballed by the NFL from ever resigning another contract.
Now by no means does Hill not deserve a second chance, but for the NFL to promote a player that falls in the bucket of the Greg Hardy’s and Ray Rice’s of the world, the carelessness and hypocrisy is glaring.
From doing all they could to trying to sweep Ray Rice and Greg Hardy under the rug, they now are making someone who’s arguably committed worse, the essential “face of the NFL.”
