Ray Rice: A Contrarian View

Over the past month or more, it's been hard to not run across the Ray Rice incident.  The short of it is--he hit his girlfriend (now wife) and as punishment has now been cut from his team, banned from the NFL, seen all of his apparel removed from stores (so no licensing revenue for him), and the loss of his endorsements.  Everything has been taken away from him.  Everything.

To be clear--with the endorsements, this is understandable.  Nike or adidas are in business to make money and having one of the faces of your business being someone who committed domestic violence--that's not going to make you money.  But just as important--those endorsements are 'extras'; they are not how Rice makes/made a living.

To be clear--any form of violence is unacceptable, whether it is a man hitting a woman, a woman hitting a man, or a man hitting a man.  Within a personal argument, words must suffice.  If it turns out you do not care for the individual--walk away.

But the thing that is getting to me is--the same people demanding Rice's head be served on a platter, that he be crucified for his action--that are calling Rice evil--many are the same people who on their Facebook pages talk about Christian love, the need for prayer and forgiveness...except that they want forgiveness for themselves, not someone like Rice.  That's different, right?  Why?

Because:

1. He's an NFL player and famous.
2. He's wealthy.
3. He's black.

Yup--I went there.  If we eliminate those three criteria, does this make the news?  Heck--it wouldn't even make the news in your own hometown paper.  Did you know that one out every six teenage girls is threatened (or has it intimated at the very least) with violence from a boyfriend?  Where's the outrage at that?  Did you know that more than FIVE MILLION work-hours were lost last year due to domestic violence (including women abusing men...which does go on, and more often than you think).  At minimum wage only--that's $35 million in lost wages. (The equivalent of 20,000 full-time jobs)

And where in the news have they talked about Rice being black?  Nowhere.  No one wants to be called racist.  But the reality is that women in relationships with black men are 35% more likely to be abused--an extension of worries about the decline of black families, the insanely high incarceration rate of black men.  But the reality is that this exists and SHOULD be talked about....but the reality is that if Rice wasn't rich, wasn't an NFL player, no one would give a crap about him beating his wife in an elevator.

* * *
But here's the thing....remember, I mentioned Christianity?  Where's the chance at redemption?  Rice has had everything taken from him--and with the internet, the video, no one will ever forget, and certainly it seems that no one intends to give him a chance at redemption (except, currently, his wife--which is a completely different issue).

Doesn't Rice deserve a second chance?  We pardon murderers and rapists, that they have done their time.  Society has given Michael Vick a second chance after his dogfighting prison time--and since then, Vick has worked to redeem himself, fix some of the wrongs he perpetrated.  Doesn't Rice deserve his chance at redemption?

To be clear--I'm not saying to just pat him on the back and say "Don't do that again".  What Rice did was horrible. 100% horrible.  But where is the hope for him--that he can come back from this mistake?  Isn't it more powerful as a message if he is given that chance and succeeds?  He can then say, "Listen to me because I screwed up bad"--and have listeners know he is speaking from experience, speaking truth.

Instead of this--the NFL punishes him more, no double-jeopardy with Roger Goodell.  His team cuts him--easier to let him go than help Rice get professional long-term help.  Baltimore's in the football business and Rice is a commodity.  When it's used up, it's thrown in the trash, forgotten.

I suspect this blog won't be popular.  And that's okay.  I just hate hypocrisy, and it's coming from all sides on this.   Instead of venting, find a way to help.  Help all women escape from abusive relationships.   It's easy to vent at Rice--more difficult to find true justice, more difficult still to reach out and help people.

Volleyball

Some observations on a season entering its third weekend as we ride our bus to God's Country (Iowa) and, in addition, to a chance to spend a weekend with volleyball, to see a couple of long-time friends.  Volleyball, friends...only thing that would make it better is if Julie, the puppies, and family were there, too!

*I was feeling a bit depressed yesterday--lack of sleep and basic exhaustion, mental and physical.  I have to watch for that--depression can take your mind and emotions in unhelpful directions.  It skews your weltanschauung.  (Yeah, that's right, I used 'weltanschauung' while discussing volleyball)  So in the middle of all this, Laura (my assistant)  comes up during a drill and says, "You know, you've been awesome this year with practices."  Not what I expected, so I responded with the eloquent "Huh?"  She then explained that she's liked some changes to drills, the warmups, etc.

A lot of the credit goes to John Kessel as well as Denise Sheldon for giving me the opportunity to do evaluations with USAV High Performance and then work with the Future Youth Selects in Vegas back in July.  You see, every coach has doubts about things--teaching ability, recruiting, whatever.  The time with HP confirmed some things to me in how I coach--and I've become more confident in those areas--and more sure that I'm right in my approach, too...something some of my players last year had me doubting unfortunately.

--You need to be specific, Jim.  (That's my inner English teacher speaking...correctly, I might add.)

Since the first time I heard Kessel talk, about four years ago at the AVCA Coaches Convention, I realized that I'd been approaching coaching wrong.  I KNEW I was wrong, knew what I was doing wasn't working optimally, but I didn't realize how to improve.  That seminar gave me my 'A-ha!' moment.  In Vegas, I got to see how those principles are applied at the highest skill levels (regardless of age).  I knew, but didn't know, that this was practiced as well as preached.

*If it's good enough for national-level programs, I'm stealing it for my team.  I did that with the dynamic warmups, the shoulder pre-hab to avoid injuries.  It's been good.  We haven't had any serious shoulder soreness, fewer injuries, and our trainer loved the dynamic warmup--thought I'd been studying up (I told her the truth though)

*The doubt I have about this current season remains--did I increase the schedule's toughness too much?  We dropped two tournaments with weaker teams, replacing them with this weekend's tourney and then another two weeks from now...in those eight matches, it is possible we'll play SEVEN NJCAA Top-8 teams, and the eighth team has a win over a D-1 Top 15 team.  When you play a schedule like that, you can lose quite a bit--and I hate losing.  A lot.

But there's the catch--how much better are you by playing weaker teams?  So I decided to follow the lead of teams like Illinois or Iowa State--we're going to schedule the equivalent of Long Beach or Stanford.  Those matches will prepare us for the post-season.  Could it keep us out of the national polls?  Yup.  I suspect if we make the polls, it won't be until October as the post-season nears.

*Are kids tough enough to deal with a ton of losses?  We are 3-5 right now, but we've lost to a couple ranked D-1 schools, another D-1 who WILL be ranked (since they've started the year 10-0), a top 10 D-2 team, another who'll be ranked this next week.  We beat D-2#14 in there with our wins, and one of those D-1 losses was actually and truly due to an official and not the teams involved. So we are playing well.  But can young athletes handle that?

I think the answer is yes.  Many players lose a ton of games during their club seasons--playing teams with accumulations of awesome talent.  How is this different....other than a W/L record is officially kept?  To me, it is the same thing. But I know there are examples of teams who lose out there that self-destruct, turn on each other or the coaching staff, and through that negativity/drama, destroy their chance at greatness--unable to look past the scoreboard for a match or two (in matches that are irrelevant--only region matches count for us for post-season standings and these have not been region matches)

*If the answer is no, and we DO have issues with the loss total, what then?  The answer is--steady on course.  I know we're on the right path, so I have to make sure we don't waiver and doubt.  That'll be critical.

*I received a list of academic-honored schools in the mail this week.  We aren't on it.  But I was annoyed by the list, seeing some of the schools.  Why annoyed?  Because I know kids who have transferred to those schools from LLCC--and while they struggle for "C" grades at LLCC because LLCC really does push for academic excellence (really!), they then go to those other schools and pick up 4.0 GPAs taking/retaking the same classes, then those schools get honored for being so awesome academically, when really--the kids are getting a grade, but not an education.

When did that happen?  It sounds crotchety, but it wasn't when I was in college--it's a phenomena of the past 20 years, I think (for things other than basketball/football), and it goes beyond sports.  Tuition rates have gone up so much--I'd bet grade inflation has the same curve.  Oh well.

*Do I hurt my team's chances of success by switching systems?  By teaching players multiple positions?  The educator in me says it is my responsibility to teach them the game, and that means all positions, all skills.  Middles need to know how to pass, setters to hit, etc.  Kids are forced to specialize way too early--so I have to provide the general fundamentals missed in jr high/high school.  The problem is that the competitor in me wants to win, hates losing.  How do I balance that without stressing myself out too much?

Well there you go...random bus musings from I-55.  Four hours to game time.  I don't know how the score will go--but I'm hoping we improve on last weekend--fix the errors, improve the good points.  Small, steady steps forward...

A strange world...politics are a funny thing

It's funny right now how a lot of world events aren't getting reported in American media--especially by the sources most partisan, places like Fox or MSNBC. 

Why?  I mean, there has to be a reason.

Maybe it's that Russia has invaded Ukraine.  But Britain relies on Russian investment and BP is a massive investor in Russia.  Britain, of course, maintains a 'special relationship' with the United States.  So we don't like Russia--again.

But in Iraq, we've been working with the Russians to get Russian warplanes to the Iraqi government to fight ISIS.  Of course, fighting ISIS, the US has also worked with Iran and the Kurds--who don't like one another, but while working with Iran, we've also assisted with Sunni militia again who dislike the Iraqi government, but have worked with Iran/Iraq against ISIS as well which means that Saudi Arabia and Iran have cooperated even though they hate one another.

Within Syria, Filipino UN peacekeepers were attacked by rebels.  They were able to hold off the attackers with the assistance of Syrian artillery (the peacekeepers were there to keep Hizbollah and Israel from fighting, I believe)--which allowed the Filipinos to reach safety inside Israel--at least the area occupied/claimed by Israel.  So the Syrians and Israelis are working together while Hizbollah (which takes its cue from Iran and despises Israel) stays out of things--since the attackers were radical jihadists...even though to the west in Gaza, Hizbollah's Palestinian faction continues to resist Israel which has been working with Egypt, but against Turkey--which was the first Muslim country to befriend Israel.

Confusing?  Of course it is.  And it is no different than politics were thirty years ago when in one African country (which one escapes me at the moment) you had American built oil rigs serving a  regime being advised by Israelis but given aid by the Soviet Union against 'communist' (perhaps socialist is a better term...) rebels being funded by the US.

I don't think most people understand this.  Some have.  It's how you got Bismarck's Realpolitik.  Reagan understood it--if we can't agree on one thing, let's work on the others we can, so something gets done regardless.

Which do you choose:
1 - If you aren't with us, you are against us.
2 - If you aren't against us, you're with us.

Random politics for a Tuesday...