USA TODAY International Edition
MLB teamwork laudable
NFL could learn from cooperation between baseball, union on domestic violence policy
There will be a lot of eyes on Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred as he decides how to handle the league’s first case of domestic abuse under its tougher new rules.
Those who ought to be watching closest are NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith.
Manfred didn’t say much Tuesday about Colorado Rockies shortstop Jose Reyes, who was arrested last month after his wife told police the All- Star had grabbed her by the neck and shoved her into a sliding- glass door. But Manfred made it clear that any decisions he makes will be guided by the domestic violence policy that was created in collaboration with the union. Imagine that! A league working with a union so there is clarity and agreement on an issue far too important to be turned into the latest skirmish in a protracted power struggle.
A league and a union working together so players and their families get the help they need to prevent future domestic violence, rather than allowing it to remain entrenched as the family’s dirty little secret.
“This is just not a disciplinary policy. It is a policy that requires evaluations, counseling and a variety of other activities in addition to the disciplinary component,” Manfred said at baseball’s general managers meetings. “We felt good about the policy when we negotiated it. This will be the first test, and I think it will withstand the test.”
Baseball has come a long way since that ugly day in 2002 when it looked as if the league and its
players were on a collision course over a variety of issues, mandatory testing for steroids being one of them.
Both sides ultimately realized fans have little patience for billionaires squabbling with millionaires and agreed to put their flamethrowers away.
It took more than a decade — plus that nasty business with Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun and the Biogenesis scandal — but baseball finally has a drug testing policy considered the toughest, and most effective, in all of North American professional sports. By working with the union, the league was able to increase punishments and testing for performance- enhancing drugs.
Instead of a wink and a nod, as was the case until 2004, a first offense gets a player an 80- game suspension, nearly half the season. There is mandatory blood testing in spring training and random blood and urine testing the rest of the year, in season and out.
Expect to see the same kind of cooperation with domestic violence cases.
Baseball took its time creating a policy, not announcing it until August, almost a year after that horrific second Ray Rice video surfaced. But it had clearly learned from the missteps of the NFL, which developed its new disciplinary policy without input from the players and still pays the price. While Manfred has the latitude to impose any penalty he wants and doesn’t need a conviction to do so, the policy puts a heavy emphasis on the opinion of a seven- person joint policy board.
MLB and the players union have two representatives each on the board, with the other three spots filled by experts in domestic and sexual abuse. One expert creates an individualized treatment plan for a player that is submitted to the full board for approval.
“There’s a balance there,” Manfred said.
In both form and follow- up. While Goodell and the NFL deserve credit for shining a spotlight on domestic violence and forcing all of us to confront our attitudes about it, it has become an afterthought in the ongoing battles over discipline.
Goodell has been arbitrary in his punishments, refusing to give the union even the slightest say. The union will excuse any sin as long as it can be used as an endaround to limit the unchecked power the players so willingly gave Goodell during the last collective bargaining agreement.
This toxic cycle leads to messes like the one in Dallas, where Greg Hardy’s misogynist comments and unchecked temper perpetuate the attitude that domestic abuse and violent behavior are OK. They are not. When it comes to domestic violence, there are no winners and losers. There are only people who need help, and baseball and its union are willing to put their egos aside to make sure they get it.