Seeing is believing.
No truer was that axiom than on the morning of Sept. 8 when TMZ leaked footage of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice hitting his then-fiancée inside an Atlantic City elevator.
The new footage preceded the tape that was released in February, the tape that captured Rice dragging Janay Rice out of the elevator seconds after the blow.
She was unconscious. She had only one shoe.
It didn’t take any stretch of the imagination to realize what had transpired inside that elevator. Ray Rice punched the woman who would shortly after become his wife.
The Ravens knew it. The NFL knew it. The public knew it.
He knocked her hard enough that she remained unconscious while being dragged out of an elevator for crying out loud.
Yet on Monday, video evidence of Rice’s transgressions changed everything.
The Ravens cut Rice immediately. The NFL suspended him indefinitely. Twitter condemned him irrevocably.
But why should the video change anything? Wasn’t the knowledge that Rice hit his fiancée enough?
The visual didn’t tell Ravens Coach John Harbaugh or NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell anything they didn’t already know.
But what it did reveal is that, as a society, we continue to propagate an invisible affliction.
Domestic abuse often never leaves the home. Bruises are covered, concealed and strategically placed as to be hidden from the public eye.
In the case of Rice, it is easy to see who supplied the cover-up.
The Ravens organization had ample opportunities to shed light on the issue of domestic abuse.
Instead, they “stood behind” Rice — thus condoning his behavior — and asked Janay Rice to share the blame.
“Janay Rice says she deeply regrets the role she played in the night of the incident,” was the statement issued from the Baltimore Ravens Twitter account May 23.
The post was deleted Monday.
In June, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell followed suit with Baltimore, slapping the flimsiest of restraints on Rice in the form of a two-game suspension.
He is lucky to have the elevator footage — which he claimed not to have seen along with the public — as a scapegoat.
“If the NFL had seen that video and suspended Ray Rice two games, it’s an embarrassment of the highest proportion,” NFL Insider Adam Schefter said on Monday’s “SportsCenter.”
No, it’s an embarrassment of the highest proportion, period.
Knowing an act of domestic abuse occurred and seeing it occur are one in the same. But for the visually-inclined public, there are ways to show support for victims of domestic abuse.
Through the national white ribbon campaign, men can display a white ribbon to identify themselves as role models for respecting women and girls.
And for victims of domestic abuse — female or male — the Bloomington community offers shelter through the Middle Way House and counseling through IU Counseling and Psychological Services.
The 2014 NFL season kicked off this weekend. It was supposed to be about seeing touchdowns and victory dances.
All people who stand behind the NFL have an obligation, now more than ever, to protect and safeguard victims of domestic abuse.
The first step is seeing not what we want to see, or what is easiest to see, but what we already know is there.
