Media Savvy
Time To Face The Real Enemy
By Tony DeFazio

Last month, two Steelers players were charged with domestic abuse. First, linebacker James Harrison was charged with assaulting his girlfriend in their home. During an apparent argument over their son's pending baptism, Harrison is alleged to have broken down a door, snapped the boy's mother's cell phone in half as she attempted to call 911, then slapped her face with an open hand.

Less than two weeks later, wide receiver Cedric Wilson was accused of entering a local restaurant, pushing the mother of his 16-month-old daughter, and punching her in the face when she turned around.

One day after the incident, Wilson-a back-up wide receiver-was released by the team. Harrison-the Steelers most valuable player this past season-remains on the roster. Steelers' chairman Dan Rooney explained the team's decision to release Wilson, yet keep Harrison, by saying this:

"What Jimmy Harrison was doing and how the incident occurred, what he was trying to do was really well worth it. He was doing something that was good, wanted to take his son to get baptized where he lived and things like that. She said she didn't want to do it."

Excuse me?

Did a prominent member of the Pittsburgh community just publicly distinguish between two men assaulting the mother of their children based on one case involving a dispute over religion?

After some minor public outcry, the Steelers decided to "clarify" Rooney's statements. "To clarify the comments made earlier regarding the conduct of our players, in no way do we condone domestic violence of any kind. Each incident must be considered on a case-by-case basis… We trust that (releasing Wilson) will indicate our intentions and send a message that we will not tolerate this type of conduct."

Whether any message will be received is, at best, debatable; and at worst, whistling through the graveyard.

Neither Rooney's seemingly careless comments, nor the problem of domestic violence, are unique to the Steelers. There are too many examples to list of spousal abuse and domestic violence-and too many cases of looking the other way-in the NFL, a league so besieged by off-the-field violence and crime that commissioner Roger Goodell has made it his mandate to crack down on athletes who misbehave.

It's too early to know whether or not Goodell's mandate has made any impact. But it's not too early to wonder if it hasn't.

Maybe the NFL is not to blame for their employees' behavior. Maybe it's simply a reflection of society.

"Violence with pro football players is no different than what happens every day… Hundreds of women are abused every day, an epidemic that is just ripping our country apart," Shirl Regan, director of the Women's Center and Shelter of Pittsburgh, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last month.

We ought to look in the mirror before pointing fingers at the NFL. Society finds it very easy to feign outrage over a Super Bowl halftime show where an entertainer partially exposes her breast. But we find it much harder to address real life atrocities. Yet at the end of the day, which carries more impact? Perhaps we should be directing more vitriol toward real events rather than what amounts to a risqué burlesque show.

The problem is; one involves an "enemy" most of us don't know and will never have to confront. The other involves our co-workers, neighbors, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. It more directly involves US. And that scares us. So we blame that faceless, nameless enemy again.