In the wake of Baltimore Ravens star Ray Rice’s indefinite suspension from the National Football League (NFL) after new video surfaced showing him punching and knocking his wife out, the folks on MSNBC’s Morning Joe rushed to indict the entire sport of football as one that promotes a culture of violence.
On Tuesday morning, co-host Mika Brzezinski claimed that the NFL is a “culture that puts up with and accepts and even supports domestic violence.”
The football bashing segment began with Joe Scarborough declaring that “there is a mindset and there’s a culture in the National Football League, or else that coach would be as horrified by the other 99% of us. Nobody -- nobody I know would say it’s not a big deal unless you obviously live in a culture that puts up with that sort of thing.”
Brzezinski followed up by rightly condemning Ray Rice’s actions but then went one step further by claiming that the NFL “supports domestic violence”:
What are they hoping things will get better? No. That is a deal breaker. It should be over. There are things you accept in relationships with people. There are things you accept in partnerships and on teams. There are things you don’t accept.
As the segment concluded, MSNBC’s Joy Reid, host of the afternoon program The Reid Report argued that Ray Rice’s actions represent not just the culture of the NFL but the entire sport of football:
I think it's not just a culture that is restricted to the NFL, this is football culture...Football players are being coddled from misogynistic behavior from high school on. It is not just the NFL. This is a culture that is being bred from childhood where it’s all about the game, it’s all about the team and even the wives in terms of Janay Rice is put out there and made to defend the game, defend the club. It’s all about the club, it’s all about the game.
While it is fair to argue that the NFL handled the Ray Rice situation poorly, for Morning Joe to go one step further and argue that the entire culture of football encourages, if not promotes such violence is unfair to the thousands of people who enjoy the sport. Leave it to MSNBC to exploit the Ray Rice tragedy as an opportunity to slam the most popular sport in America.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC's Morning Joe
September 9, 2014JOE SCARBOROUGH: So Mika, first of all, Coach Harbaugh, in that first clip had already seen the fact that somebody that played for his team, beat up on a woman, knocked her out, dragged her out of an elevator and I’m quoting him here. He says it's not a big deal. He’s a heck of a guy. And he made a mistake and kids can learn that when you make a mistake. Two games. There is a mindset and there’s a culture in the National Football League, or else that coach would be as horrified by the other 99% of us. Nobody -- nobody I know would say it’s not a big deal unless you obviously live in a culture that puts up with that sort of thing.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: It is a culture that clearly puts up with domestic violence. It is a culture that puts up with and accepts an even supports domestic violence. I don’t think I need to say it again and I meant everything I said. That woman, no matter what she says, no matter what she tweets or is told to tweet is a victim out of that elevator, okay? That woman had her ears boxed, she was knocked out and she was dragged out of an elevator and if for some reason she’s so completely encumbered by the weight of the relationship and the emotional toll that has happened that she cannot even see that she is a victim anymore that’s one issue.
But the NFL supports domestic violence by not even-- I mean it doesn’t even seem like he’s been kicked out. Suspended indefinitely. What are they hoping things will get better? No. That is a deal breaker. It should be over. There are things you accept in relationships with people. There are things you accept in partnerships and on teams. There are things you don’t accept.
JOY REID: Yeah, and I think it's not just a culture that is restricted to the NFL, this is football culture. People don't realize how many women watch football. I grew up on football, I grew up in Denver, Colorado, the only place that is more football fanatical than Denver are Dallas, Texas and all of Florida. And we grew up bleeding orange crush, we were all about the Broncos. But football culture is a problem from pee-wee football on up.
Football players are being coddled from misogynistic behavior from high school on. It is not just the NFL. This is a culture that is being bred from childhood where it’s all about the game, it’s all about the team and even the wives in terms of Janay Rice is put out there and made to defend the game, defend the club. It’s all about the club, it’s all about the game. And she's put out there--
SCARBOROUGH: You say it’s about the club and the game. It’s about the money.
REID: And it's about the sponsors and the money that’s what it’s about.
