Keith Olbermann offered up a searing monologue that highlights how women are treated generally by misogynistic fools and then linked it to the disgrace that is the NFL. Roger Goodell's arrogant two game suspension of Ray Rice for "allegedly" punching the lights out of his girlfriend has set the intertubes a blaze. Some people became heroes like Michelle Beadle, and others became villains like Stephen A. Smith, but in the end it's the NFL that comes out looking like the real knuckledraggers of this story.
Keith Olbermann's segment on Ray Rice was strong, indignant TV, resonant with everyone who believes a two-game suspension for punching out a woman is a clear signal that the NFL doesn't consider domestic violence meaningful violence.
"The message to the women who the league claims constitute 50 percent of its fan base: The NFL wants your money. It will do nothing else for you. It will tolerate those who abuse you verbally and those who abuse you physically."
There's outrage here, and justifiably so. He hammered home the point that Rice's crime and the shrugged-shoulders reaction from the NFL has repercussions far beyond football, that it's another example—a highly visible example, but still just one of many—that the sports world is not a friendly place to women.
As Olbermann wrapped up the day's events: "And another generation of athletes and fans begins to view the women in sports as just a little less human."
This reminded me of the days when Olbermann rose to prominence when he roasted the Bush administration and all its lackeys at a time when the media kowtowed to their every whim.
Will the NFL respond to this latest scandal?
