Domestic violence. Battery. Assault. Abuse. Sexual Assault.  No matter what you want to call violence against women or children, it is an epidemic of staggering proportions. 

All men are (or should be) taught a few simple lessons: “Never hit a woman ….. Respect all women … If you get angry, just walk away.”  Those lessons are self-explanatory and imperative in a civilized culture. Violence in general shouldn’t be condoned, but when a man attacks a woman or child, it should be met with swift justice.

Any man who assaults a woman or child in any capacity should honestly be behind bars. Yet, for some reason, the NFL continues to employ domestic abusers and players who have violently assaulted women and children.

That specific issue was highlighted when former Kansas City Chiefs RB Kareem Hunt was signed by the Cleveland Browns after he was seen kicking a woman on a video that was released by TMZ in November. The league, of course, denied having seen the video and that the police denied them access to the same video that TMZ somehow could get their hands on. Promptly following the video’s public release, the Chiefs released Kareem Hunt swiftly, and until now, he has been without an NFL job and the NFL is investigating the matter.

And yet, because he is one of the best RBs in the NFL, he finds work. There were some underlying rumors that the female seen being kicked in the video had been calling Hunt racial slurs. If true, it would make her clearly in the wrong, but as seen in the video, Hunt goes back after the situation is diffused and forcibly kicks her.

Yet Hunt is just the latest of these men with troubled pasts who have been allowed back into the NFL. Michael Vick was brought back into the league after he had served his time in jail for dog fighting. Bengals RB Joe Mixon was drafted in the second round and continues to play for the Bengals after punching a female while at Oklahoma. Saints WR Dez Bryant assaulted his mother and yet continues to get work, even when he is rather washed. Washington RB Adrian Peterson still receives work even after it was revealed that he beat his children. In 2010, Ben Roethlisberger served a four-game suspension for his highly questionable personal conduct in the company of women — today, he’s a local hero. Even Larry Fitzgerald was caught in a domestic dispute.  The list seems to go on and on.

The point? The NFL is allowing men who ruthlessly hit women and commit crimes back into the NFL simply because they are talented at football. These men are not good for the family-friendly image that the NFL wishes to put out to the public. It is a recurring stain, and the NFL seems complacent with it. 

Hunt will likely face a 10- to 12-game suspension, and yet, once that is over, he will be completely free to do anything in the league in the future.

The only exceptions to the rule are Ray Rice, whose assault recorded on video was so egregious that not even the NFL could get around it, and Colin Kaepernick.

The fact that a man like Kaepernick can be without work but these guys, who commit actual crimes, can find work with ease is appalling. Kaepernick undoubtedly brings large scale distraction from kneeling for the anthem, but so do these players who have committed large scale crimes. Implicitly saying that domestic abuse is okay as long as you are good at football is not a great message to send to the public when you’re the leading sports organization in America.

But that is the message the NFL sends to its fans. Its image is clearly tainted and even toxic, and Roger Goodell is doing nothing to fix it.