League with domestic abuse problem inadvertently endorses a domestic abuser
By Josh Hill
Tyler Lockett scored a touchdown, which was good, and gave the ball to Floyd Mayweather, which was bad.
The last thing a league that has issues with domestic abuse needs is a serial domestic abuser getting put on a pedestal by its players. That was reality Sunday for Roger Goodell and the NFL, as Floyd Mayweather was the recipient of two game balls in Los Angeles.
Mayweather received the first one from Tyler Lockett, who handed him a ball after scoring a go-ahead touchdown against the Rams.
Floyd Mayweather just got a touchdown as a gift.https://t.co/bLXCDPLFab
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) November 11, 2018
Some Seahawks fans were understandably not too thrilled with the crossover. Mayweather has been accused of domestic abuse by multiple women, including an instance in which his children verified a reported case to authorities. Rachel Nichols took him to task over the latter and he’s been dragged for his abusive past prior to every major fight he’s had in the last five years.
The NFL has had numerous instances in which it bungled the punishment of players who were either accused of or found guilty of domestic abuse, most notably the cases of Ray Rice (where video evidence of the abuse was released) and Greg Hardy (in which he was found guilty but later walked). Neither of the two players were initially punished severely until the pressure was put on the league to do so.
i mean we were already going to lose but now we’re going to lose and we gave a touchdown ball to floyd mayweather
— Natalie Weiner (@natalieweiner) November 11, 2018
Stop giving Floyd Mayweather free shit
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) November 12, 2018
Lockett wasn’t the only one who gave Mayweather a ball. Brandin Cooks scored what ended up being a game-deciding touchdown and handed Mayweather his second ball of the afternoon.
Somewhere, in an office in New York, Roger Goodell’s head exploded. The absolute last thing he needs is for players to be openly endorsing a domestic abuser, and doing so on national television no less. As recently as this past June folks have been standing up to out the NFL for its garbage policy towards women and the subject was amplified when the league decided to take a stronger stance against kneeling for the flag than violence towards women.
No one was giving Mayweather a game ball with the idea that they were condoning him as a person, but the optics of it are brutal.