With news breaking that the Baltimore Ravens had terminated the contract of running back Ray Rice in response to the graphic security video that surfaced earlier today, a lot of talk pertaining to the ethical principles and morality of the situation have circumnavigated media outlets across the country.
The Ravens ultimate decision to part ways with Rice was not only the the right decision, it was the only decision.
Their message was clear cut and to the point: A person who strikes a defenseless woman has no place in the Ravens organization.
The ethical controversy is why it took so long to reach this conclusion.
Four months had passed since the incident first made headlines.
What has changed from then to now? Sure there is further graphic documentation of exactly what occurred that night, but weren’t we all aware of the factual outcome literally right after it happened?
What today teaches us is that it takes hard evidence in order to achieve rightful justice in today’s sports world.
Perhaps this is the same reason why a fellow wife-beater remains on the payroll in the Chicago Blackhawks organization.
Yes, those Chicago Blackhawks.
The pristine and immaculately family-friendly organization that prides itself on its ethical and moral standards and will cut down anyone over anything that dares to deface that image has a known wife-beater on its payroll.
Little did you know that even the most carefully scripted of organizations possesses some skeletons of its own.
Insert Bobby Hull, perhaps the most celebrated player in Blackhawks franchise history and current Ambassador to the organization.
According to this piece written by 670 The Score’s Dan Bernstein, the former Blackhawks great has more than one thing in common with Ray Rice.
For one, they are both highly gifted athletes and were two of the best in the world at their craft.
Second, it appears that each enjoys assaulting their significant other.
Hull, who has married three times, has been accused of domestic assault on more than one occasion.
His second wife, Joanne McKay, issued the following graphic description of an incident that occurred while the two vacationed in Hawaii in 1966.
“I looked the worst after that Hawaii incident. I took a real beating there. [Bobby] just picked me up, threw me over his shoulder, threw me in the room, and just proceeded to knock the heck out of me. He took my shoe — with a steel heel — and proceeded to hit me in the head. I was covered with blood. And I can remember him holding me over the balcony and I thought this is the end, I’m going.”
After four more years of fluent mental and physical abuse, McKay filed for divorce in 1970.
The two would rekindle their marriage in the mid-1970’s.
This wouldn’t last long as McKay, yet again, filed for divorce only after Hull threatened her with loaded shotgun.
Hull would remarry in 1984 to his third wife, Deborah.
The abuse didn’t stop there.
Two years into the marriage, Hull was arrested in a Willowbrook parking garage on charges of domestic assault and battery against his wife.
When police arrived to apprehend the former Blackhawk great, they discovered Hull drunk, and his wife beaten. As officers attempted to detain the belligerent Hull, the Hall of Famer physically lashed out at the arresting officers.
Hull plead guilty of swinging at one of the officers and was slapped with a $150 fine and six months of court supervision.
If the sports world learned anything during the past four months its that wife-beaters like Ray Rice, Ray McDonald and Bobby Hull are merely dark clouds lingering over otherwise respectable sports organizations.
The despicable actions associated with their presence can, will, and has only created unneeded baggage for the franchises they represent.
Luckily for all those law-abiding bystanders and especially for all those players who uphold the moral standards of their respected teams and leagues, loose baggage can be eliminated, as the Baltimore Ravens proved today.
Everyone is expendable.
No matter how crucial a player is to your team or how symbolic a figure is to your organization, there exists no person in the world of sports worth keeping if he or she continually scars their organization’s image.
This includes Bobby Hull, the cornerstone of Blackhawks Hockey and Ambassador to the franchise we hold so dearly close to our hearts.
Perhaps Hull has gotten away with his wrongdoings for this long because his long list of misdeeds occurred during a time without mass or social media.
As fans of respectable sports, this is no one’s fault but ours.
Fans were outraged when Patrick Kane skipped out on cab fare. Many demanded punishment and immediate suspension for the naive and young winger.
While the punishment was nothing more than a slap on the wrist, Kane still owned up to his misconduct and we forgave him for it. The Blackhawks handled the controversy professionally and Kane has matured immensely since those days.
My question is this: where is the outrage over Hull?
Last time I checked he is still earning a paycheck as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks organization.
He committed the same sins as Rice, yet he is still employed and no one even winces over it.
Ray Rice and Bobby Hull are two in the same.
Both were prevalent figures in their respected sports and both are iconic to the franchises they were once apart of.
Both are criminals guilty of the same crimes against defenseless women.
The difference between Ray Rice and Bobby Hull is this:
Rice has been punished for wrongdoings.
Though meager and long past due, Rice is paying for his misdeeds.
Hull, on the other hand, has gotten away scot-free thus far.
Its time for the Blackhawks to make a change.
If the Blackhawks truly want to be known as an organization that holds its core values and principles above all else, it will do the necessary deed of cutting ties with the wife-beater it has been harboring for over twenty years.
Sources: ESPN, CBS Sports
