The problem that won't go away

Mary, my loving and wonderful wife, walked into a store somewhere on the planet sometime in the past four days. We were looking for x,y,g (don't ask). We never found x or y and g was not in the picture (which since I can't even recall what we were actually looking for makes finding it exceptionally hard). That left a straight up swap: G for A,B, or C.

As we were walking (I assure you it was not after midnight if you're into symbolic lyrics), we passed a canteen set of two. I made a casual, off the cuff remark about owing one as a kid. Mary said she too had one. I asked something along the lines of "what in the world did you have one for?" I didn't mean to imply that one half of one half the two genders on the planet had no business owning a "manly" canteen, but apparently that's the way it came across. She replied with the force of a hurricane with a dry wind in it, not drowning me but instead pushing me back. Dusting me back, if we're stealing baseball metaphors as well as football.

Carolina defensive end Greg Hardy is temporarily suspended because, and no one but Hardy and his lawyer actually dispute this, he allegedly beat his girlfriend, dragging her about their apartment before finally stopped by "the community." We were beaten to the punch on this story by the neighbors, one of whom said that unless the police showed up "right now" Hardy would kill his girlfriend. He not only played in four preseason games, he played in the first regular-season game last week. He started ... and he played. The uproar grew so loud, Carolina sat him for the second game. The NFL has yet to move. He was convicted in a jury trial . This man was convicted ... and yet he played.

Ray McDonald, playing for a team that claims zero tolerance for domestic violence in San Francisco, is STILL playing despite not one but twice in which he has been the police have been called to referee domestic violence incidents.

And you might have heard of the Ray Rice case.

Here's my take on this. I believe, after much further review, that all of the football players who are involved in these incidents should be forgiven by a loving God, forgiven by their peer, and they should be suspended by a jury of their peers and their employers after a court trial and a trial with jurors made up of NFL staffing, the NFL commissioner, NFLPA leers and fellow football player. And I believe the penalty should be one year for first offense, two years for a second and a lifetime ban for any others.

Here's the problem, the real gut wrenching problem. I don't believe most NFL players feel Commissioner Goddell should be judge and jury over this case -- and now I believe any other case would seem the same for them. They no longer trust him, if they ever did. Without trust, there is no way for Goddell to be doing his job.

It's time for changes. Real changes.