Sigh…I saw that news mere minutes after hitting publish.

I wholeheartedly agree with your second point as well. What is my bigger concern on such a spotlighted stage is not that suddenly men will think it’s ok to abuse others (women, children, men, animals or little green martians), but that society’s priorities are becoming so jaded that the rest of us turn a blind eye to such transgressions because, “Hey, our team won.” To me, this victimizes the abused a second time.

Everyone of us needs to be held accountable for our own actions. Cause and effect, behavior and consequence.

HOWEVER, I think every adult should be responsible for their behavior and not take the cop out of “oh well, I had poor role models in Ray Rice or Adrian Peterson.” The argument the media keeps making that this behavior sets a precedent for other spouses to abuse their partners or other parents to abuse their children is weak. These (and other men) are human and have made some very poor decisions. The only thing another human being should learn from them is not to repeat these grievous mistakes.