The biggest questions from Kareem Hunt's video

Instead of getting bogged down in details, the conversation around Hunt should turn, they say, not to measure against Rice, but to bigger questions. Why are violent behavior off the field tolerated again and again? How often does it happen when it is not filmed? How can we prevent it?

Here's what these savvy observers say we should talk about when we talk about former Kansas City spokesman Kareem Hunt.

1. How and when the NFL reacts and acts

A friend of Hunt told the police that this woman – who appears to be white – described them as offensive before the incident.

"It was just a disagreement and I sincerely wanted her to leave," Hunt told ESPN in an interview broadcast two days after the video aired. "It's not an excuse for me to act like that or even to put myself in that position."

The Kansas City Chiefs gave up on Hunt, their star on the run, a few hours after the film was released. The same day, the NFL placed him on the list of people exempted from the commissioner, which means he can not participate in football activities until the league has completed his investigation .

In 2014, two videos came out of which Rice had badaulted his fiancée at the time, his wife Janay Palmer. Seven months after the badault, the Ravens released Rice and the NFL suspended it indefinitely.

"I'm not sure that comparing the Rice and Kareem Hunt cases is productive, but it is illustrative," said USA Today editorialist Kelly Whiteside, badistant professor of sports media and journalism at Montclair State University of New Jersey. "Something bad happens, we react and then move on."

"I would not be surprised if Hunt plays in the NFL next year, given his age and his talent, and winning, and the money that comes with it, means too much."

Rice, who was reinstated by the NFL on appeal, no longer played after her initial suspension – largely because of the incident, but also because her most productive years were behind him, said Whiteside.

Whiteside thinks it's more enlightening to compare what's going on with Hunt to Greg Hardy's case.

Hardy was convicted of badaulting a girlfriend, but then signed a $ 11 million one-year contract with the Dallas Cowboys, she said.

"The Hardy and Hunt cases show that violence off the pitch is tolerated, if an owner thinks that player can help the team win," she said.

And since Rice, there have been several examples of professional athletes receiving lucrative contracts while charges are pending – one of them dating just days before TMZ publishes the Hunt video.

The San Francisco 49ers released linebacker Reuben Foster on the morning of November 25, a few hours after being arrested for domestic violence at a hotel in Tampa, Florida.

"The Redskins fully understand the seriousness of the recent allegations against Reuben," said Doug Williams, senior vice president of staff of the team's players, in a statement. "If this is true, you can be sure that these allegations will not be tolerated by our organization."

2. How the video evidence seems to force the action

"And there was no video?" said author and activist Kevin Powell. "Would we have this conversation now? No, I do not think so."

TMZ aired a video on February 19, 2014, showing Rice trailing a seemingly unconscious woman in an elevator four days earlier. After the fight this morning, the two men were arrested and charged with common badault.

However, even before the release of the second video, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell admitted that the suspension of two games was too lenient and created a standard of discipline: any player having violated the league's of behavior the physical force would be suspended six games for a first offense. Despite its discipline policy, the NFL has not met this six-match standard in several incidents of violence against women.

The league said that she had opened an investigation immediately after the altercation. The incident did not result in any arrests and Hunt was not charged with a crime, according to Cleveland police.

A police spokesman said the league had officially requested police records or video surveillance only on November 30, the same day that TMZ had released the surveillance video. An NFL spokesman disputed the Cleveland police statement, noting that he "had had numerous verbal conversations with police officers in Cleveland and had requested a video surveillance as soon as he had learned about the incident in February ".

The league said it did not have access to the video of the hotel and was not able to talk to the complainants during the fight. Hunt told ESPN that the league had not interviewed him – but he admitted to having lied about the incident to the leaders.

An agent representing Hunt did not respond to CNN's request for comment.

3. The wider problem of violence against women

Violence against women is not just an NFL problem, it's a social problem, Whiteside says.

"In many ways, sports are the star of our country," she said, noting that Rice's video highlighted the problem of domestic violence.

But when these incidents have highlighted the issue of violence out of the field, we have an opportunity for a national calculation, she said – and this opportunity is too often spoiled.

"The discussion on difficult issues in the sport raises public awareness, although a significant portion of America wants its athletes to be quiet and dribble … or tackle it."

Sports enthusiasts may be tempted to examine high-profile cases of violence off the field and rank them against each other. After all, the criminal justice system works like this: it badesses the seriousness of a crime and badigns a sentence based on a number of factors, including the nature of the offense and the offender, including history, likelihood of re-offending and the possibility of treatment.

But when there is empathy towards the victims, the same sliding scale should not apply, said Powell, author of Kevin Powell's Education: The way of a boy in manhood. "

"Everything is bad," he said about the incidents involving Rice and Hunt. "They are both women and human beings, regardless of their relationship with them."

4. What could make men violent?

Violence against another person is never excusable, said Lisa Hickey, publisher of The Good Men Project and CEO of Good Men Media Inc.

But violence does not occur in a vacuum, and it is important to understand how popular culture and society understate and standardize abuse, including in sport, she said.

"The NFL is looking for aggressive players – and, by definition, that means they have to be able to hurt themselves and harm others," Hickey said.

Although we do not know how much it is in Rice's or Hunt's private life, it's clear that football is a violent sport. Research shows that repeated blows of athletes can cause brain damage that can progress to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), which can lead to behaviors such as increased aggression, risk-taking and loss. of the executive function, she said.

Systemic racism is also a form of abuse, said Hickey. The use of the word-word is a form of racial violence, although "we, as a society, have not understood the implications of repetitive racial violence over time and the trauma that it causes." ;she provokes".

"Players are also encouraged to be violent, then are expected to extinguish violence when they leave the field.The cycle of violence intensifies and we are surprised that violence is spreading on the ground and in Other areas, "said Hickey.

"Violence against women is one of the areas in which it often overflows – and violence against women is standardized to the point that not only are we not doing enough to prevent it, but often we are not do not even see it. until there is a video as extreme as those of Kareem Hunt or Ray Rice, "she said.

"You can not continue to have problems and think there are not any," he said. "You have to be the person to defuse the situation, you have to go."

"There is something very shocking about this, when someone is constantly in trouble," Powell said. "You have to ask," What's going on? Why does not anyone here interpose? You need help. "

Rice told a reporter from the NFL website that he would be happy to talk to Hunt about what he had learned since his suspension.

"I will never call myself an expert, I have discussed the remorse I have for victims of domestic violence," he said, "but knowing what I know now, the top priority is to learn that it takes the same second decisions, which happen at the most hostile times, and that's where it could be a teaching tool. "