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NFL sends mixed message on women

If Ray Rice never plays football again, nothing will have changed. If Roger Goodell is fired as commissioner of the NFL, nothing will have changed.

If Ray Rice never plays football again, nothing will have changed.

If Roger Goodell is fired as commissioner of the NFL, nothing will have changed.

If the league issues a dozen new rules and related penalties pertaining to the abuse of women by men, nothing will have changed.

That's the first thing that has to be understood about the whole fallout from the sad saga of Rice and his wife, Janay. Everything is for show. Everything is for appearances. Nothing is about real change.

Start with that.

The truth, of course, is that the sort of change that would make the world a safer place for women is beyond what something so minuscule and unimportant as a football league can accomplish.

The NFL isn't the disease. The actions of some of its players are just a symptom of the disease. They might be likelier candidates than most men because they work in a testosterone-laden, violent environment, and their status as elite athletes means they have learned that certain rules don't apply to them, but men hit women every day and usually the assailants aren't football players.

The problem of men physically abusing women is not going to go away. It is as basic as the powerful taking advantage of the weak. Big people beat up little people, as Chip Kelly likes to say. Civilizations change slowly, but they do change. Certainly, the argument can be made that the NFL - as a very public, very male entity - could set an example by its commitment to leading that change.

Yes, it could. How's that been going lately?

While the league covers up and obfuscates and dithers around until it figures a way to create the mere appearance of change again, here's one simple thing Roger Goodell could stand in front of the American people and say:

"Folks, we're getting out of the cheerleader business."

Now, that would be for appearances, too. It would be a symbolic message that the league understands that part of the problem is related to objectifying women, which it does by parading them around in skimpy outfits that are little more than lingerie with logos. The cheerleaders are there, to a large degree, for the pleasure of the male customers and it's fine to leer at them and whistle  at them and view them as whatever you like, with the possible exception of "equals."

When the Ravens played Thursday night, well, everyone connected with the management of the team was horrified about what Ray did. Owner Steve Bisciotti was horrified. General manager Ozzie Newsome was horrified. Coach John Harbaugh was horrified. And then the two teams came out and smacked each other around just like any other game, and there were The Playmakers, right there on the sideline, jumping up and down and shaking their pom-poms to celebrate their heroes.

Men achieve, women cheer. That's the message and it isn't even all that subliminal.

Get rid of the cheerleaders. That would be for show, too, but it would be a tangible sign that the league is willing to join the slow process toward equality of treatment.

It would do a lot more than banning Rice, whose place will be taken by someone else from the same football culture. It would do more than getting rid of Goodell, who would be replaced by someone exactly like him as well.

The league won't take that suggestion, and, in answer, it would trot out some single mother of two who is only able to buy enough milk for the table because she has a second job with the Chicago Bares or something. The league won't do anything the league doesn't want to do or isn't forced to do.

Goodell's latest brainstorm - hiring a former FBI director to conduct an "independent" investigation of the matter - would be a lot more impressive if Robert Mueller didn't come from the law firm that negotiated the NFL deal with DirecTV and has represented Washington owner Daniel Snyder. It would be nicer if Goodell didn't choose owners John Mara of the Giants and Art Rooney of the Steelers, the most insiders of league insiders, to oversee the process.

It is all malarkey and all for show. Based on what we know, the NFL's security people - who are a hard-eyed collection of former federal agents and cops - are either complicit in the fable of the second video, or they were too incompetent to ask the Atlantic City police for a look at the evidence gathered from the scene. You decide.

Meanwhile, Greg Hardy is playing football for the Carolina Panthers while he appeals a two-count domestic violence conviction. Ray McDonald of the 49ers is still out there while San Jose police conduct an investigation into an alleged Aug. 31 assault. When the legal process plays out for both men, then the league will issue its punishment. Guys, I wouldn't be expecting leniency right about now.

That's because it's all about appearances, and you can bet the league is going to make it appear it really cares about women from now on. The NFL wants to help them, wants to protect them, wants to embrace them.

Particularly in those cute cheerleader outfits.

@bobfordsports