NOT THAT YOU ASKED

How about some football. Or maybe, how about some football players who don't get enough action on the field, so they go home and punch out their wife or live-in to work off some of that extra aggression. Here's how about. Whether you play on the high school, college, or professional level, if you hit a woman, even if you only do it once, you are out of the game permanently. You're off the team you play for, and no other team can take you.

And here's a note to the NFL, the players, the coaches, the ex-players, the networks, and all of the people who call the games, or talk about them on the air. It's time to stop this useless drivel about how this is only a few players and that most of the rest of them sit home at night drinking milk, and reading the Bible. I don't care if only one player hits one woman one time. That's one time too many, and the league should kick him out.

Any school you attend, high school or college, has rules of conduct that all of the students have to follow. Likewise, all employers have personal conduct policies that his employees must follow. One of these should be zero tolerance for any student or employee who commits spousal abuse, or physical or sexual abuse against any woman, the first time it happens.

Why zero tolerance? Because physical and sexual abuse of women is an epidemic in this country. Sexual assaults of women on college campuses are at an all time high, and growing. You don't hear much about it, because it's not the sort of thing any college is going to put in a brochure. "Send your daughter to our school where she'll get lucky whether she wants to or not." doesn't encourage parents to send their daughter to a school.

Another reason for zero tolerance is that, if a man commits physical or sexual abuse on a woman once, he will do it again. He may come to her afterward crying, on his knees, bearing gifts, and begging forgiveness. He'll even promise that it will never happen again. The truth is after he has hit you once, if you stay, he will hit you again. I would write "don't take my word on it, ask Nichole Brown Simpson" but you can't do that, can you?

If there is any good that has come from the revelations of spousal abuse among NFL players it is the realization that these crimes cross all social and economic classes. The time when we could dismiss spousal abuse as something that only happens among the poor or the "lower" class is gone. It happens in all homes, from mansions to shacks. It happens in the homes of the unemployed and homes where money is no worry. It happens in the homes of the famous, and the homes of nobodies. It happens everywhere.

Another reason some of you may believe that these crimes only occur among the poor is that money and fame can be used as a shield to protect abusers who have them. Ray Rice only drew a two game suspension at first because he is a star player on his team, who put fans in the seats and viewers around the TV. A third string player would have been out the door the day it happened.

I'm sure O.J. Simpson would just smile and turn on the charm when the cops showed up at his door. After he assured them that it was all just a "misunderstanding" he could give them an autograph and they would leave thinking he was the greatest guy in the world. Nichole would of course back him up because she knew that if she didn't, once the cops were gone, he'd beat the crap out of her. I don't think there is any doubt in anyone's mind (except for his jury) that if he weren't a rich, famous, popular ex football player, he would have been convicted of her murder.

The South has gotten a lot of things wrong in the past, but one of the things it has done right is that men are raised from birth being told that it is wrong to hit a woman. This is one time the rest of the country should follow that example.