Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren joined 15 other female senators on Thursday to demand that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell institute a zero-tolerance policy for domestic violence.
Spearheaded by Senator Barbara Boxer of California, the letter blasts the NFL’s handling of the Ray Rice scandal, saying, “it is long past time for the NFL to institute a real zero-tolerance policy and send a strong message that the league will not tolerate violence against women by its players, who are role models for children across America.”
Warren and her co-signers are “shocked and disgusted” by the video that surfaced earlier this week of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice beating his now-wife Janay Palmer back in February, and by reports that NFL officials may have seen the video prior to dealing out Rice’s initial two-game suspension.
The bipartisan petition, which gives a nod to the twentieth anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act, was signed by prominent members of the US Senate, including Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California (all but four of the 20 female senators currently serving in Congress signed the letter). It also highlights the NFL’s history of lax punishments for those in the league who have been accused or convicted of assaulting a woman.
The NFL’s current policy on domestic violence, instituted last month after the news of Ray Rice beating his wife first broke, sentences players to a six-game unpaid ban for their first offense and a lifetime ban from the league for their second.
“We are deeply concerned that the NFL’s new policy…would allow a player to commit a violent act against a woman and return after a short suspension,” the senators wrote. “If you violently assault a woman, you shouldn’t get a second chance to play football in the NFL.”