Nearly eight months after Baltimore Ravens' running back Ray Rice attacked his then-fiancee Janay Rice (née Palmer) in an elevator in Atlantic City, conversation is still swirling about how much the NFL knew about the incident, when they knew it, and if the sports media is somehow complicit. (Just this week, ESPN's Bill Simmons was suspended by his employer after he called NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a liar on his Grantland podcast.)

Meanwhile, problems with violence off the field continue to crop up across the league, but Goodell says he no plans to resign. Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson has been indicted for child abuse, Arizona Cardinals running back Jonathan Dwyer was deactivated over domestic abuse allegations, and Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy is being investigated for domestic violence. The NFL has put together a panel of female advisers to help address issues of domestic violence and has pledged to reform policies and practices across the league, although critics are skeptical about how effective these efforts will be without a comprehensive investigation into the underlying culture and business interests of the NFL.

Cosmopolitan.com spoke with four experts — Women of Color Network senior director Tonya Lovelace Davis, University of Wisconsin law professor and co-founder of the Black Women in Sport Foundation Linda Greene, Sports Illustrated host Maggie Gray, and Nate Jackson, a former Denver Broncos tight end and author of the memoir Slow Getting Up on his time in the NFL — about domestic violence, the culture of the NFL, and whether the league can redeem itself.

What's your overall impression of the NFL's handling of the recent scandal? Has anything surprised you about the controversy itself or the reaction?

Nate Jackson: It hasn't been surprising to me to see either the handling or the reaction. The handling of the scandal was done by a group of men who lived in a football bubble where football was the only thing that matters. A really warped sense of reality sets in and the big-picture view kind of fades away, and they don't have their hands and fingers on the pulse of what real life and real socialization is like simply because there are no women around. They don't deal with women on a daily basis. They don't have professional relationships with women. Most football men are a little bit socially awkward, don't spend a lot of time with their wives, and don't see women very often at all. It is not surprising at all they are out of touch with America and what it feels like to be out in the world. They want to sweep things under the rug and make sure they focus on football.

As far as the media's reaction to it, I am not surprised by that either. The sports media in particular relies on the institution to be sacred in order to sell it and make it monumental and important, and when something happens like this, when someone commits a crime — and in this instance it was caught on video — they want to chastise everyone involved so they can keep the institution sacred. The reality is NFL players are no more likely to abuse their significant others than the average American male, but whatever these guys do now is under the microscope and there are a lot of eyeballs on them.

Linda Greene: I think they deserve an F, but I agree with Nate that I'm not surprised. It is all about money, and keeping that money business going. One of the things that may make a difference is if whatever reforms the NFL undertakes are done with a proper examination of the institution. It's a 9 billion dollar business. The story about how it happened, that the suspension was initially a two-game suspension, was a very interesting story, but you can believe a lot of men came together and said, "Hey, do I really want to get rid of this player permanently?" I also agree that this is an enterprise that has to churn every week and it is no surprise that there was never any reaction to these events until we had the Rodney King moment where people saw something that was hidden. What I would add is we want the sausage, which is the thrill of football, but we don't want to see it made, we don't want to know too much about the people, about their lives, about where they come from.

I think men should be just as outraged by that tape as women.

Tonya Lovelace Davis: I was not surprised by the reaction. These are workplaces where the workplace/livelihood is based upon aggression and varying levels of violence. It is not just an act of violence — it is all the verbal, nonverbal, daily behaviors that lead to that. So when a person leaves the field, when a person leaves the battlefield or even just their work environment, their transition between that and reconnecting with their families and their loved ones is definitely a challenge. I'm not saying that all people in the military or football are violent emotionally or physically. What I am saying is that is probably not a surprise to people in upper management that these are probably the hazards of the workplace.

Maggie Gray: I'm not surprised that women are underrepresented in team executive roles. I actually am surprised that the NFL has been this tone deaf in dealing with domestic violence. I don't think you need to be a certain gender to be completely horrified by this, whether you saw the tape or not. I think men should be just as outraged by that tape as women, and that is where the NFL really became tone deaf because they underestimated that domestic violence wouldn't resonate with their entire fan base, and to me that is shocking. I think they really just fumbled this, to use a football term, from the start because you know at some point, you have to realize that this is spiraling out of control and you can't continue to kind of explain it away.

Greene: I just want to be sure that I have a chance to say that an investigation of the Ray Rice circumstances and Goodell's handling of it would fall far short of the focused examination that would be necessary to really get to the bottom of what happens in the NFL. What Ray Rice did was despicable, but we would make a mistake if we allowed ourselves simply to focus on individuals. We have to focus on the culture and the institutions involved before we are going to have any systematic and deep institutional solution.

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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks at a press conference on September 19.

In the Ray Rice case, there was video evidence of abuse, but how should the NFL handle situations where that's not the case?

Gray: I understand why video changes things — as humans, we are visceral people, and I understand that. [But] I don't think it should take video evidence to change how the NFL is going to take domestic violence. The police report for the Ray Rice case was there. I think that right now, people are very skeptical that the NFL is actually OK to handle this. Rodger Goodell has said that he understands the responsibility that the NFL has as a billion-dollar company, and everyone from your 10-year-old nephew to your grandmother could have a fantasy team. Most people in America are fans of football or touched by football in some way. I think whether there is video evidence or not, whether it is police reports or what have you, they need to have a thing where they can institute something while still maintaining the rights of the players.

What should that policy look like?

Lovelace Davis: It is important for there to be policies and protocols in place that really provide some guidance that isn't reactionary. That includes training and information that is multilayered that goes all the way from the players to family members. We are talking about a workplace that is built upon aggression, so there has got to be some kind of support, so there is a better transition for players back into their homes. But each situation should be looked at on a case-by-case basis so that even if you have the policy, you should be examining it so there isn't one lump approach to it because that is also not helpful.

Jackson: Are there other workplaces that hand out penalties when employees commit a crime? [In] the NFL, if you get arrested, you deal with the law but you also deal with Rodger Goodell, who's kind of like a sheriff himself and doles out additional punishment. I just feel like I don't know. Is that common in the workplace or corporations to ban [employees] from coming into work for six weeks because they commit a crime?

Lovelace Davis: Some places that have taken up these issues have also instituted various policies that really address violence. There are some kinds of penalties that really have to do with how that impacts your ability to continue your employment or continue to do the work at the level that you're doing it.

The NFL just enlisted four female advisors to help shape domestic violence policies. What impact would this have?

Jackson: It's hard to tell what kind of impact it will have. I think a lot of it might be a PR move and overcorrecting. I think it is good that he is listening and promoting women into important roles. But these boys have been playing football since they were 8 years old. Football, the higher up you go, is really about following orders. It is about saying, "Yes sir" and doing this very tactful and very violent thing as well as possible, and the guys who are best at it and the guys who don't ask any questions and the guys who don't raise any objections are the ones who stick around. What you have in the NFL is a collection of very physically talented guys who say, "Yes sir," and enact the coach's will out on the field. There are a host of reasons why these men are kept in a perpetual state of adolescence by the industry. I think the importance that we place on football as a society allows these higher-up men in the NFL office and the owners and the coaches to control the system and to make football the only thing that matters, and when football is the only thing that matters, everything gets swept under the rug — not just domestic violence, but substance abuse and all kinds of things.

Gray: I have to agree with Nate that even if it is an overcorrection to a problem, I think it is a step in the right direction. All of the domestic violence counselors and child abuse therapists I've spoken to over the last two weeks to try to get a handle on this story always say it is about education. It was clear the NFL didn't have anyone two weeks ago who could have steered them in the right direction in terms of dealing with these issues. It is the right thing to do to bring in people that can help make sure that the policy against domestic violence and the culture of the NFL as a whole can change going forward.

Lovelace Davis: I do feel that there is some great expertise at that table. But I also think very much missing at that table is — there were four white women, which is very problematic, given the demographics of the NFL. There should be African-American men and women at the table to bring a holistic approach to the NFL and thinking about how to have a more selective participation around family wholeness and around community support and awareness.

Greene: Tonya, I agree with what you said about the makeup of the group. I still want to emphasize, however, that the question of whether the group giving advice will have any influence to me depends on the stature of the people who are providing the guidance. I think it is one thing to bring a lot of experts together, but you have to look more deeply at the institutions involved. The dialogue is still focusing on the players and not the owners and not the coaches and not the NFL itself.

There have certainly been cases of domestic violence in the NFL before. Will this conversation actually change anything?

Greene: Viewership is still holding steady with no drop-off since this occurred.

Jackson: I think the NFL is going through a lot right now. Not just the Ray Rice situation but the realization of the long-term effects of the game, the concussions, the violence. The institution is being peeled away like an onion and America is starting to be able to see what goes on in that institution. What seems to be happening is even those who are turned off by it, who are appalled by it, are still paying attention to it and being pulled closer to it.

The reason they swept that Ray Rice right under the rug is not because they hate women — it is because it is distracting them from football supremacy.

I do think it might have a trickle-down effect and cause mothers and fathers [to] stop enrolling their children in Pop Warner football, and if that happens, the popularity of the game will decrease over time, but the NFL is a really powerful institution. But I do think it is very dangerous to look to the NFL to lead the way in any type of social issue, because the men who run the NFL are pretty poorly socialized men. The reason they swept that Ray Rice right under the rug is not because they hate women — it is because it is distracting them from football supremacy. I don't think this is the last scandal that is going to happen. We are going to dig up more stuff.

Can the NFL redeem itself?
Jackson: I suppose so. People have relatively short memories and attention spans when it comes to "scandals." They want to see the NFL correct itself, and if they feel sufficiently appeased in that regard, the NFL will demean itself — I'm sorry redeem itself. Freudian slip there. But the NFL does provide a big petri dish to discuss these issues at large. We can kind of point the finger and say the NFL has a bullying problem, the NFL has a domestic violence problem, the NFL has a marijuana problem or whatever it is, but I think it is important in the way you frame this discussion to at least allude to the fact [that] domestic violence is not a NFL problem. It is a societal problem.

Is there anything you want to add or think our readers should know?
Lovelace Davis: This is an opportunity to shed light on the issue that disproportionally, African-American women will experience the highest rate of violence in their lifetimes. I think this is also an opportunity to look at why women stay. It is about looking at the pattern of violence and changing the dialogue.

Greene: I do think it is a great opportunity to focus attention on the issues of domestic violence for the country as a whole, and no institution has the attention of America more than the NFL so I want to be optimistic and say that this is a great opportunity for society.

Gray: I would just try to underscore the fact that, despite the popularity of professional sports, we really are talking about a societal issue, so I don't think there is any league or any area of society that hasn't been touched by domestic violence. It shouldn't be the NFL's burden but with power comes great responsibly. They are the most popular sport in America, by far, and with that, they get a lot of eyeballs. The NFL is what shapes us.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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