Okay, time to give out the most coveted prizes in blogging world (not), today’s medals in the Idiot Brigade Awards.
The Bronze medal goes to Conservative MP John Redwood, for suggesting that the Scots should be banned from voting in the 2015 General Election if they vote for Independence. John, you do realise that such an idea is pretty guaranteed to make the Scots vote for Independence, just to spite you?
The Silver medal goes to Patriarch Filaret, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin as being possessed by Satan. You know, this is not going to help de-escalate the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, but worse than that, you actually compared him to the wrong person. If anything, Vladimir Putin is looking more and more like George W Bush did during his second term, where all he had was his own certainty, his own beliefs, his own omniscience, and little to no connection with the real world at all. That is about all Putin has left at the moment, is his own certainty, his own omniscience, his own superiority complex, if you will.
But the Fools Gold Award winners today, are Ray Rice, The Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League, The National Football League themselves and the Commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell. You may recall that Ray Rice was suspended by the NFL Commissioner for two games, after TMZ released a surveillance video tape showing Ray Race dragging his then fiancé Janay Palmer out of an elevator. Since then, Roger Goodell and the NFL have taken a public relations pummelling over the lenient punishment. That led to a change in policy, that was not backdated, that all domestic violence offenders would be suspended for 6 games on a first offence, and banned indefinitely on a second offence.
Today, TMZ released the ‘other video’ that the police had had all along, which showed what happened inside the elevator. I’m not going to link to it directly, or embed it on the page, as I consider it too graphic and too violent. But suffice to say, his actions in that elevator made the two game suspension look far worse than farcical. It made it look utterly shameful and a complete disgrace.
Almost instantly, the Baltimore Ravens released Ray Rice, followed in equally quick succession by the Commissioner, Roger Goodell, announcing that Ray Rice was being suspended from the NFL indefinitely, and all based upon this release of the ‘new’ video, a video that both the NFL and the Baltimore Ravens deny having previously seen, but knowing how the NFL has a great working relationship with the Police, I find that whole scenario incredibly unlikely.
I have little doubt in my own mind, that they were just trying to ride it out, wait until the heat died down, and then everything would be a-ok, and they could quietly bury it. Today, those thoughts were blown out of the water, and the speed of both organisations reactions unfortunately give away exactly what they knew. They had to have seen the video, knew what it contained, and yet still, they tried to diminish it, by only suspending Ray Rice for 2 games. Today’s video demonstrated that you cared as much about domestic violence, as much as you had previously cared about concussions, prior to last year’s settlement, which was not a lot.
Baltimore Ravens, if you had taken some responsibility in the first place and suspended Rice before the NFL had taken its original decision, the one that now looks incredibly ridiculous, you would have looked strong, and in command, instead of looking weak, feeble and out of touch, as you do now.
Roger Goodell, you surely don’t expect me to believe that you hadn’t seen the second videotape until now. I find that very hard to believe. Again, rather like the Baltimore Ravens themselves, you look weak, feeble, indecisive and out of touch with the people who matter most to you and your organisation, your fans, especially the large contingent of female fans that the NFL attracts.
Ray Rice, the Baltimore Ravens, the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell. Not only our Fools Gold Award winner today, but unequivocally, today’s Worst Persons In The World.
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