ESPN’s Coverage of Intimate Partner Violence in the National Football League

IPV in Society and Sport

Each year, more than 2 million people are targets of IPV in the United States (Cronholm, Fogarty, Ambuel, & Harrison, 2011; Savage, Scarduzio, Harris, Carlyle, & Sheff, 2016). Nearly one in four women and one in seven men have reported experiencing IPV and have expressed health or safety concerns to an emergency service office, health-care provider, and/or legal or social service advocate office (CDC, 2017). IPV is physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological violence, abuse, harm, and/or threats by an intimate partner (CDC, 2017). An intimate partner is defined as a current or previous romantic or sexual partner or companion (CDC, 2017).

Although IPV is an issue permeating American society, individuals contextualize IPV as a personal or relationship-level issue rather than a social or cultural issue in the United States (Savage et al., 2016). Media coverage of IPV has significantly influenced public perception of the issue (Carlyle, Orr, Savage, & Babin, 2014). Some media coverage of IPV has perpetuated public perceptions that IPV is an individual issue (Savage et al., 2016; Sellers, Desmarais, & Tirotti, 2014). Some researchers explain that the impact of media coverage of IPV reduces individuals’ perceived responsibility on this pervasive issue (Carll, 2003; Carlyle et al., 2014).

The lives of public figures are often examined in mass media outlets and scrutinized by readers and viewers across the globe. Professional athletes are among the public figures whose personal lives make headlines when social and legal issues arise. Celebrity instances of IPV highlight the issue because these incidents often make headlines in news and popular media outlets. Beyond gossip or a scandalous event, athletes committing IPV have made headlines in print, broadcast, and digital media as the press has examined this pervasive issue (Luther, 2016a; Paquette, 2016; Turner, 2014). Repeated instances of IPV have occurred in all sports, but the off-the-field behavior of professional football players has been more prominent in recent years as accusations of sexual assault, battery, and IPV have been raised.

McDonald (1999) suggested that coverage of domestic violence issues in sport is very important because when these incidents happen, they end up being among the most visible examples of these acts in society due to the sheer popularity of sports. Even though instances and public dialogue about IPV amongst NFL players are an issue that has received increased attention in recent years, many scholars have been studying issues of off-the-field violence in sports for quite some time (M. Messner, 2012). Beyond the NFL, Packard Hill and Fuller (2018) recently conducted a study that focused on the coverage of domestic violence incidents amongst rugby league players in Australia and found that media coverage of these events helps to shape and reinforce the normative discourse that surrounds them. Simply put, the issue of media coverage of IPV in sport continues to be of both scholarly and public interest because of the dialogue that is created as a result of these issues, and the potential for this dialogue to either shape or reinforce how society understands these issues.

In response to the public interest in athlete’s off-the-field behavior, Brent Schrotenboer, sports writer for USA Today, created and maintains an online collective database of arrests and legal charges of NFL players for moderate to severe crimes. The database dates back to January 2000 and is regularly maintained and updated. The data are collected from media reports, press releases, and public records. The database includes the date of arrest or charge, player name, team, position, type of case (charge or arrest), and category of case. In addition, a description of the event and the outcome is listed. The statuses of many cases are still pending. Not all resolution information is shared. The types of cases range from trespassing, illegal use of weapons, illegal drugs, assault, alcohol- and drug-related criminal activity, sexual assault, domestic violence, and in some instances murder (Schrotenboer, 2018). Needless to say, the NFL tries to carefully manage how it deals with these issues when it comes to the punishment, media coverage, and the public response because of their popularity and history in American culture.

Popularity of the National Football League and Media Coverage

Millions of people watch televised broadcasts of NFL games each season. The 2017 Super Bowl alone had over 111 million viewers (Sports Media Watch, 2017). Even though the 2018 Super Bowl ratings were down slightly (103.4 million television views), the game still generated 170.7 million social media interactions (Nielsen, 2018). The regular season television viewership averaged 16.5 million per game in 2016 and 14.9 in 2017 (Rovell, 2018). While there have been some ups and downs in terms of rating and viewership, the NFL is still very popular and the fan base continues to grow.

With the roots of the NFL grounded in the United States, football is viewed as much more than an entertainment event or sport. The sport of football is described and contextualized in the United States as full of excitement, violence, and representative of American ideals (Vogan, 2013). Football is even often referred to as “America’s Game” (Beaver, 2013; Mandelbaum, 2007; Satterfield & Godfrey, 2011). The NFL and popular media have framed warrior-like use of force on the field as “heroic” (Hudson, 2012; Kipnis, 1994; Oriard, 2014; Vogan, 2013). The NFL’s self-produced coverage and public media relations have presented professional football players as altruistic heroes playing purely for the love of the game, instead of for their astronomical salaries (Vogan, 2013). Watching sports with others develops and perpetuates a sense of community (Aden et al., 2009). Football fandom transcends the stadium and living room television. Fans gather for watch parties and connect for virtual watch parties. Fans create their own virtual interactions through Fantasy Football leagues.

ESPN was founded in 1979 and has since become one of the world’s most popular brands (Forbes, 2016). ESPN’s current brand value is estimated at US$16.9 billion and they pay an estimated US$1.9 billion annually for NFL broadcast rights (Travis, 2016). As one of the most profitable and popular, the network charges cable distributors almost 4 times as much as all other networks for each subscriber each month (Fahey, 2016). Therefore, the sheer power and influence that ESPN carries in the sports world almost guarantees that people are paying attention to the way that they produce and discuss sports on a day-to-day basis.

In other words, how ESPN chooses to frame any particular story whether it’s positive or negative does indeed matter. Geyerman (2016) pointed out that on-air ESPN personalities were both praised (e.g., Dan Le Batard and John “Stugotz” Weiner) and scrutinized (e.g., Stephen A. Smith) for their opinions on the Ray Rice incident. In providing commentary on this issue, Smith insinuated that Ray Rice may have been “provoked” by Janay Palmer, insinuating that Rice might not be at fault for his actions (Chase, 2014). After much public scrutiny, Smith was forced to issue a public apology regarding his commentary on the matter and he was suspended by ESPN for 1 week. Even though ESPN produces a variety of different content in many different formats, examples like this one underscore why it remains important to see how they frame issues of IPV and sport at a broader level because people are watching, reading, and listening.

Framing and IPV

Studies reveal that the majority of IPV media coverage utilizes episodic framing, which presents the events as singular occurrences rather than as events representative of a more serious societal problem (Carlyle, Slater, & Chakroff, 2008). In contrast, news stories using thematic framing present the incident as a one event that represents the larger issue (Carlyle et al., 2008). The tendency for news stories to use episodic framing over thematic framing has contributed to the public misconception that IPV is an issue between two individuals, rather than an issue that deserves attention at the societal level (Bullock & Cubert, 2002; Meyers, 1996). In the context of IPV within the NFL, news coverage of IPV incidents can be framed as issues with the individual player, an individual team, the NFL as an organization, or society as a whole. The present study explores the episodic and thematic frames utilized in ESPN coverage of IPV incidents, and the implications of those chosen frames.

Sports have generally been presented in media with mythological undertones. Football representations are heroic, sensational, powerful, and alluring (Vogan, 2013). Media professionals, sports journalists, and fans metaphorically reference NFL players with savior and superhero imagery (Watts, 2014). Professional athletes are admired by fans of all ages. Sports media framing analyses have included examinations of race (Billings, 2004; Eagleman, 2011; Laucella, 2010), gender (J. S. Clark, Apostolopoulou, & Gladden, 2009; Smith, 2014; Whiteside & Rightler-McDaniels, 2013), visual framing (Douai, 2014; Emmons & Mocarski, 2014; Hull, Smith, & Schmittel, 2015), and suicide (Karimipour, 2016).

Most of the studies involving framing and IPV have been critical in nature. For example, Christensen, Gill, and Perez (2016) found that general newspaper coverage of the Ray Rice incident was filled with White supremacist ideology serving the purpose of reinforcing the ideology that Black men are violent and dangerous. Also, Geyerman (2016) examined news reporting surrounding the Ray Rice event and found that the sociopolitical system and reporting surrounding this event make it seem normal and legitimate to a certain extent. Our goal in this article is not to ignore the work that has been done in this area from a critical perspective, but instead, we seek to explore, describe, and explain the frames and framing that are used by ESPN when reporting on NFL athletes who are charged with IPV.

The magnitude of the Rice incident and ESPN’s written media articles covering instances of IPV have sparked an interest for closer examination. To examine sports media coverage of IPV, this study specifically investigates ESPN’s web-based written NFL coverage 2 years prior to and 2 years after the Rice incident. In particular, the way in which ESPN sports media writers present the social, cultural, and health issue of IPV (CDC, 2017; Cronholm et al., 2011; Savage et al., 2016; World Health Organization, 2010) within media frames is potentially shaping the way their audience understands these interwoven subjects.

Sampling Frame

We used the USA Today’s NFL arrest database (Schrotenboer, 2018), as the foundational information source for names of players charged or arrested, and dates of IPV incidents. The database serves as a source of collective information that describes arrest information and charge details. Data for the database are collected from media reports, press releases, and public records. It dates back to January 2000 and is current through the submission date of this article. Included in the database categories are the date of arrest or charge, player name, team, position, type of case (charge or arrest), and category of case. Additionally, a description of the event and the outcome is listed. In addition to the breadth and depth of information contained in the database, supplemental justification for using the USA Today database is to have an ESPN-independent, reputable source for IPV incident details. Other media professionals and sports journalists use this perpetual database (Barshop, 2014; Gaines, 2016; Irwin, 2014).

The date of Ray Rice’s arrest was February 15, 2014. Two years before (i.e., February 15, 2012, through February 14, 2014) was selected as the time frame to examine before the Rice incident (Group 1). The time after Rice’s arrest through February 15, 2016, was also examined (Group 2). In order to answer the questions specifically included in this research design, we chose to exclude Ray Rice from the sample of players. The scope of this study was to investigate the impact that the Rice event had, therefore only incidents before and after were included.

Using the following conceptual definitions of IPV and intimate partner, players and incidents were screened from the database to be included in our sample. IPV is physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological violence, abuse, harm, and/or threats by an intimate partner (CDC, 2017). An intimate partner is defined as a current or previous romantic companion or ongoing sexual partner (CDC, 2017). The USA Today’s NFL arrest database “category of case” and “description of the event” sections served as the descriptive information. Arrests were conducted and criminal charges were filed from a variety of locations throughout the United States. None of the incidents were labeled within the database as “IPV.” The “categories of case” varied from assault, domestic violence, battery, sex, sexual battery, rape, and murder.

First, we began the sampling procedure by immersion in the data (S. J. Tracy, 2013). This multistage process began with reading the raw data, noticing and making memos of what was observed during immersion (S. J. Tracy, 2013). Articles meeting the inclusion criteria and memos created from data immersion were then reexamined. Using the constant comparative method (Lindlof & Taylor, 2011), descriptions of instances of physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological violence, abuse, harm, and/or threats were compared.

The “categories of cases” for the articles included in the selected sample were labeled as domestic violence and one case of murder. Not every instance of domestic violence noted in the database in the selected time frame was included. The victim in the case was screened for fitting the intimate partner definition (CDC, 2017). Using the CDC (2017) definition, cases with victims other than intimate partners were excluded from the sample. Multiple researchers were used to ensure sampling reliability. Working independently, two coders descriptively assessed the database (Cohen, Wilson, Vanderpool, & Collins, 2015). Two meetings were held to review interpretation, discuss discrepancies, and arrive at mutual consensus (Campbell & Wallace, 2015; Cohen et al., 2015). In the case of any ambiguity with regard to the description of the situation (e.g., victim type, actions, charges), we conducted an Internet search for published information regarding the incident that could clarify information about the victim and offer more details about the interaction (i.e., current and former romantic partners vs. strangers). After finalizing the list of players and incidents to include in the sampling frame, player names were then searched on ESPN’s website.

Sample

The purposive sample includes NFL players ranging in team and position specialty. The sample was split into two groups based on occurrence prior to or after Ray Rice’s arrest. Group 1 (February 15, 2012, to February 14, 2014) consists of nine players. Group 2 includes eight players arrested between February 16, 2014, and February 15, 2016. Tables 1 and 2 identify the players included in each group of the sample. Every article that included the name of the player within the body of the article, from the date of that player’s IPV incident to the end of the sampling frame (i.e., February 14, 2014, for Group 1; February 15, 2016, for Group 2), was selected for inclusion in the sample. These articles, N = 593, make up the sample for this study.

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Table 1.

Group 1: National Football League Intimate Partner Violence Arrests (2012–2014).

Player	Team	Date	Category	Number of Articles
Chad Johnson	MIA	August 11, 2012	Domestic violence	46
Bryan Thomas	NYJ	October 31, 2012	Domestic violence	34
Jovan Belcher	KC	December 1, 2012	Murder, gun	67
Robert Sands	CIN	January 4, 2013	Domestic violence	0 (1)a
Chris Rainey	PIT	January 10, 2013	Domestic violence	22
Leroy Hill	SEA	January 29, 2013	Domestic violence	12
Amari Spievey	DET	March 26, 2013	Domestic violence	7
Daryl Washington	ARI	May 3, 2013	Domestic violence	69
A. J. Jefferson	MIN	November 25, 2013	Domestic violence	1
Total				259

Note. MIA = Miami Dolphins; NYJ = New York Jets; KC = Kansas City Chiefs; CIN = Cincinnati Bengals; PIT = Pittsburg Steelers; SEA = Seattle Seahawks; DET = Detroit Lions; ARI = Arizona Cardinals; MIN = Minnesota Vikings

Source: Schrotenboer (2018).

^a Before Ray Rice, 0 Sands articles; after Ray Rice, 1 Sands article was written.

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Table 2.

Group 2: National Football League Intimate Partner Violence Arrests (2014–2016).

Player	Team	Date	Category	Number of Articles
Ray McDonald	SF	August 30, 2014	Domestic violence	84
Jonathan Dwyer	ARI	September 17, 2014	Domestic violence	24
Junior Galette	NO	January 5, 2015	Domestic violence	82
Rodney Austin	DET	April 17, 2015	Domestic violence	9
Josh Brown	NYG	May 22, 2015	Domestic violence	62
Justin Cox	KC	July 20, 2015	Domestic violence	3
Johnny Manziel	CLE	January 30, 2016	Domestic violence	64
Montee Ball	NE	February 5, 2016	Domestic violence	6
Total				334

Note. SF = San Francisco 49ers; ARI = Arizona Cardinals; NO = New Orleans Saints; DET = Detroit Lions; NYG = New York Giants; KC = Kansas City Chiefs; CLE = Cleveland Browns; NE = New England Patriots.

Source: Schrotenboer (2018).

Website Textual Analysis

Media framing studies evaluate the patterns in the way topics are identified and issues are discussed (Connolly-Ahern & Broadway, 2008). Articles were searched on ESPN’s website using each player’s name and the date of the incident through the end of the group’s time frame (i.e., before or after, February 2014 or 2016). The universe of stories on ESPN’s website relating to the 17 players identified through the purposive sampling procedure were qualitatively analyzed using open-coding and constant comparative methods (Lindlof & Taylor, 2011). The total number of articles examined in reference to Group 1 was 259. The total number in Group 2 was 334. The textual analysis proceeded as an integrated process of identifying, retrieving, and analyzing the significance, meaning, and relevance of web articles (Altheide, 1996), informed by sports media framing concepts.

Focus on the Individual Player

The majority of the articles which noted the IPV incident focus on the individual player’s incident or arrest, rather than IPV as a societal issue. Articles in Group 1 were characterized by presenting the incident as an episodic issue stemming from the player. If a player had previous arrests, the framing would shift to a thematic focus of a pattern of that specific player’s bad behavior in general (e.g., substance abuse, drugs, DUI arrests). Rather than framing the article to present the player’s perpetration of IPV, the focus would often be why the player was bad for a team. “The combination of Johnson’s age (34 years old), declining production, recent arrest and potential to be a distraction on a daily basis is too much. I just don’t see it” (Williamson, 2012). The focus of Williamson’s article was whether Chad Johnson, who had been released from the Miami Dolphins after his domestic violence arrest, would be a good fit in the American Football Conference West. Another article shared a similar perspective. Miami’s coach said that Johnson was not cut from the team based on committing IPV. “It was more a body of evidence,” including what ESPN presented as foul language and insubordination (Walker, 2012).

Articles after Ray Rice framed the players through their agent and attorney statements. Players in Group 2 were noted as attempting to present a responsible image by appearing to proactively reach out to inform their coach and team of their arrest. ESPN staff writer Rothstein (2015d) wrote that Rodney Austin’s attorney had released warrants filed in the former Detroit Lion’s IPV arrest.

“Rodney maintains his innocence and has instructed our legal team to pursue any legal avenue possible to clear his name,” [Rodney] Austin’s attorney, Mark Jetton, said in a statement Thursday. “He understands the extraordinary sensitivity of the domestic-violence issue, especially surrounding the NFL at this time.” (Rothstein, 2015d)

Problem for the Team

Individual player–focused themes would often shift into how this player’s time away will impact the team’s performance on the field. Many Group 1 stories were characterized by noting only that the player was cut by the team. Other articles framed the team problem as a thematic team issue of several different player arrests. One player’s thematic history of IPV was framed by mentioning Chris Rainey’s release from his college team before coming to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Group 2 stories conversely noted several official team comments. Some included that the team was taking the incident seriously and that IPV is a serious matter. Thematic team framing starting in 2015 included team policies of “no tolerance” of IPV. An overarching theme that became evident was that teams were presenting themselves as having fewer players who were getting in trouble. After the arrest of Justin Cox, the Chiefs chairman was quoted saying they have, “no policy regarding players charged with crimes,…[we want to] be a leader in the NFL and not a team that has a lot of guys getting in trouble” (Teicher, 2015).

In the wake of multiple player arrests, the Detroit Lions made a US$250,000 donation to a domestic violence shelter. In addition to team public relations efforts after a player was released, articles covered teams who took in or quietly rejected the released players. Some teams were framed as having high expectations for their players’ off-the-field character.

NFL’s Problem

Very few articles from Group 1 identified the NFL’s role or the NFL at all. If the NFL was mentioned in Group 1, such as in the case of New York Jets’ Bryan Thomas, the article merely noted that the league was aware of the situation. An NFL spokesperson was quoted as saying, “We are monitoring the case. It will be reviewed under the league policies at the appropriate time” (McManus, 2013). A Group 1 article on former Minnesota Vikings’ cornerback A. J. Jefferson framed IPV as just another judicial issue that the NFL lumps together with all other legal trouble.

Ray Rice’s IPV incident had a profound impact on NFL policies and the way the league was framed on ESPN. The shift in media framing after the Ray Rice incident resulted in the league being mentioned in articles for every player. The NFL’s independent investigations were mentioned along with the league’s “awareness” of the incidents. Official statements by NFL representatives were reported. The new league policy of a six-game suspension for the first incident and a lifetime ban from the NFL for the second was covered by ESPN as a tougher stance on IPV. The NFL’s response was now framed as an active part of almost all articles covering IPV incidents. ESPN examined the league as a whole, “The NFL has faced a lot of scrutiny over its handling of domestic violence issues in the past year” (Rothstein, 2015a). After Ray Rice, ESPN noted a different kind of pressure for the league. League punishments were scrutinized in some offenders such as Johnny Manziel who was not reprimanded after committing IPV.

Missing the Point

The overarching salient theme in our findings is the lack of writers addressing the real issue. They are missing the point. Most of the articles in the sample did not note the IPV incident. Of those that did, very few articles in the sample addressed the underlying concern of the seriousness of IPV. The case of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Jovan Belcher, who shot and killed his girlfriend, Kassandra Perkins, before killing himself, was overwhelmingly framed as a tragedy of suicide. One ESPN writer pointed out,

Belcher murdered his girlfriend, killed himself and left their infant daughter orphaned--yet the ensuing media coverage mainly focused on a young, hardworking football player gone too soon, a storyline apparently easier to tackle than a national epidemic of violence against women. (Fagan, 2013)

In addition to the salient themes revealed in the findings, one very evident difference in ESPN articles before and after Ray Rice is the amount of detail about the IPV incident. Group 2 articles included much more detail from police reports, witness statements, and legal documents.

Incidents of IPV were more episodically than thematically framed before the Ray Rice incident. After February 15, 2014, there was a clear shift to more of a thematic focus of IPV incidents. ESPN began to frame IPV arrests as more than just an individual player issue. Rather than just a problem for an upcoming game, ESPN writers recognized that teams were issuing statements about team policies relating to bad player behavior. Additionally, the involvement of the NFL in each incident was now anticipated and analyzed. After the Rice incident, it was no longer acceptable for the NFL, nor the team, to say they would sit back and wait for a lengthy, legally negotiated, judicial process to decide players’ level of accountability.

Another clear shift was the way that players were framed in ESPN articles. Group 2 articles included player statements crafted through high-paid attorneys and agents charged with managing the image of the player. Many articles included players refuting charges and details in victim statements. Some ESPN writers included an analysis of the financial cost to the individual player as well as the team. In a series of articles covering Junior Galette’s arrest, while waiting for the NFL’s decision on punishment, one writer framed the saints’ pending possible dismissal as a bad financial decision, “The Saints have already paid out or guaranteed a total of $18.7 million to Galette over the past two years…it’s not easy for teams to recoup signing bonus money that has already been paid out” (Triplett, 2015b). Triplett contextualized Galette’s IPV arrest as another example in a pattern of immaturity. While the shift to a thematic framing style was evident in ESPN articles in Group 2, the societal issue of IPV was not clearly recognized overall.

Players’ Futures: Moving On

As Luther (2016b) writes, sports media want to see a high-profile case come to an end so that we can all “move on.” But what happens to a player who is released from a team? After the team rids the player and the six-game suspension is served, a player can be seen as toxic by the league. For some, the IPV incident was the end of their NFL career. For others, they are scouted by the Canadian Football League or an Arena Football League team. No ESPN article addressed the issue of other league’s policies. Nor did ESPN as a whole address the deeper concern of addressing the health and social issue of IPV in any of the analyzed articles. Additional exemplar article excerpts can be seen in Table 3.

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Table 3.

Article Excerpts.

Theme	Player and Group Number	Article Excerpts
Individual player	Daryl Washington (Group 1)	Daryl Washington’s legal troubles worsened Friday when authorities charged the Arizona Cardinals linebacker with two counts of aggravated assault on the mother of his child…. The charges against Washington and the separate four-game NFL suspension he faces in relation to the league’s substance-abuse policy have focused negative attention on him entering what could be a pivotal season. (Sando, 2013)
Individual player	Rodney Austin (Group 2)	In a statement Tuesday afternoon, [attorney, Mark] Jetton said his client has authorized him to pursue a civil suit against the woman claiming “malicious prosecution, defamation of character and slander.” Austin believes the allegations made against him are retaliatory due to “disagreements over the future of their relationship…. I think that the record, once all the information is out, I think that it will be clear that the charges as everybody is seeing them are not what occurred.” (Rothstein, 2015b)
Team problem	A. J. Jefferson (Group 1)	The Minnesota Vikings released cornerback A. J. Jefferson on Monday, hours after he was arrested on a domestic assault charge…. Jefferson’s arrest is the second of a Vikings player this month…. Jefferson’s departure comes at a time where the Vikings are already thin in the secondary because of injuries. (Goessling, 2013)
Team problem	Amari Spievey (Group 1)	From a legal and NFL eligibility standpoint, these arrests are relatively minor. But taken together and added to last year’s string of spring incidents, they feed the Lions’ reputation for employing players who find trouble in the offseason. (Seifert, 2013)
NFL’s problem	Junior Galette (Group 2)	According to the personal-conduct policy, the NFL also now will undertake its own independent investigations into such matters, “the timing and scope of which will be based upon the particular circumstances of the matter.” According to the policy, “any such investigation may be conducted by NFL Security, independent parties, or by a combination of the two.” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, however, declined to go into specific details on whether such an investigation has begun. (Triplett, 2015a)
NFL’s problem	Rodney Austin (Group 2)	The NFL has told the Mecklenburg County district attorney’s office that it plans to send a court reporter to the trial of former Detroit Lions offensive lineman Rodney Austin when it begins Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina…. This could theoretically assist the league in any investigation it might want to do on its own about the case. The NFL declined comment because they don’t feel it is appropriate to discuss how their investigators do their work. (Rothstein, 2015c)
Missing the point	Jovan Belcher (Group 1)	Too often, the silence becomes white noise, as everyone fixates on some smaller issue rather than the thing itself. They hotly debate why the Kansas City Chiefs would go ahead and play a game just one day after Belcher shot Kasandra Perkins nine times before taking his own life, but they pay only lip service to domestic violence and its root causes…. It’s so much easier to wash our hands of an unsavory event if we convince ourselves that the behavior in question was created by an unusual set of circumstances…instead of grappling with a much larger, far more complex set of issues. Because sports don’t exist in a vacuum. (Fagan, 2013)
Missing the point	Johnny Manziel (Group 2)	Even after we found out that former Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler suffered from the brain disorder CTE, and even as the Cleveland Browns try to get in touch with troubled quarterback Johnny Manziel after he allegedly threatened to kill his girlfriend and dragged her by the hair, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell remained placid and positive Friday during his annual media conference in San Francisco. (McManus, 2016)