The NFL Gets It Wrong Again With All-White Advisory Board

The NFL is trying to manage two controversial domestic abuse cases involving high-profile black players by hiring three female domestic violence experts – all white – to advise a league that is 70 percent black.

The women are: Lisa Friel, former head of the sex crimes prosecution unit in the New York County District Attorney’s Office; Jane Randel, the co-founder of NO MORE, which aims to “raise the profile of and normalize the conversation about domestic violence and sexual assault”; and Rita Smith, the former executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

“We are continuing to develop our organization to strengthen our ability to address the wide range of issues we face and other changes in our office will be announced soon,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a memo about the hirings. “Our goal is to make a real difference on these and other issues. We know that we will be judged by our actions and their effectiveness.”

It’s precisely their effectiveness that I’m concerned about. The NFL missed an important opportunity. This isn’t simply a diversity issue – it’s an issue of cultural awareness, cultural understanding, and the NFL hiring people who can directly relate to the Black family experience.

Friel, Randel and Smith are all capable women and I’m not opposed at all to white women being hired to deal with domestic violence issues within the NFL, but I am concerned that Goodell didn’t feel the need to hire any Black women to deal with Black men in the NFL on the critical issue of domestic violence.

And why didn’t the NFL hire any Black men? There are plenty of qualified African-American men who are experts on domestic violence whose advice and guidance may better resonate with a predominantly Black league.

In the case of Adrian Peterson, the high-profile running back for the Minnesota Vikings who was indicted on child abuse charges and deactivated from the team, Peterson said he disciplined his 4-year-old son with a switch. Peterson maintains that he loves his son, admits that he disciplined his son, but is not a child abuser. Pictures of the child showed wounds on his body from the switch.

“He used the same kind of discipline with his child that he experienced as a child growing up in East Texas. Adrian has never hidden from what happened,” a lawyer for Peterson said in a statement.

So here’s where the cultural aspect of this case comes into play: Right or wrong, Peterson is a product of his own upbringing and I believe a Black woman – or man – who specializes in domestic violence issues will bring an important cultural perspective to the discussion that others may not.

Charles Barkley, the former NBA star. who I rarely agree with, said correctly that most Black folks in the South whip their kids.

“I’m from the South. Whipping is … we do that all the time,” the former basketball star who was born and raised in Leeds, Alabama, said. “Every Black parent in the South is gonna be in jail under those circumstances. I think we have to be careful letting people dictate how they treat their children.”

In this case, Barkley is right. When I was growing up in Detroit, Black kids in my neighborhood were whipped with switches by their parents all the time – myself included – and I never saw anyone from Child Protective Services cruising through the community.

And that’s why the NFL needs African-American domestic violence specialists to help put the Peterson case into the proper cultural perspective. I believe some Black players would be more candid with a Black woman — or a Black man — when talking about these kinds of sensitive and deeply personal issues.

Now, in the case of Ray Rice, this is an open and shut case. Rice, the former running back for the Baltimore Ravens, was suspended indefinitely by the Ravens — and the NFL — after a disturbing video emerged showing a cold and brutal Rice punching his then-fiancée in the head and knocking her unconscious in a hotel elevator in Atlantic City eight months ago.

If there are other NFL players who have been abusive to women – Arizona Cardinals running back Jonathan Dwyer is the latest to be arrested for domestic violence – I’m sure the three women hired by the NFL will make sure these cases are dealt with seriously and swiftly.

In the meantime, while the public awaits the facts in the Peterson case, these highly-trained women will certainly ponder this critical question: When does parental discipline of children in the Black community cross the line into child abuse?

What do you think?

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