It’s a shame that ESPN First Take hosts, Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless, didn’t actually discuss the controversial two-game suspension of Baltimore Ravens football player Ray Rice, or maybe they did. Maybe the fact that the NFL basically slapped the hands of Ray Rice is action enough to make people think that Janay Rice is partially responsible for provoking the punch that knocked her out cold.
On Friday, the topic of discussion on First Take was Ray Rice’s two-game suspension for domestic violence. However, ESPN First Take host Stephen A. Smith may have caused even more controversy when critics claimed that he implied women are to blame for provoking violence from men.
Smith kicked off the discussion by saying that “men have no business putting their hands on women” and acknowledging that “domestic violence is obviously a very real, real issue in our society.” However, he stirred controversy when he said:
And I think that just talking about what guys shouldn’t do, we got to also make sure that you can do your part to do whatever you can do to make, to try to make sure it doesn’t happen. But at the same time, we also have to make sure that we learn as much as we can about elements of provocation.
Journalists jumped on these statements and accused Smith of implying that women must do their part not to provoke men to violence, which has ironically caused as much or more controversy as the Ray Rice two-game suspension.
In defense of Smith, I think he may have been trying to make a very subtle point about the “elements of provocation”—not provocation in absolute terms—because Smith does say “not that there’s real provocation, but the elements of provocation, you got to make sure that you address them.”
I think what he’s trying to say is that there are two parties involved in domestic abuse, and while it’s NEVER okay to assault a family member or loved one, we should talk about the situation that led up to the violent act—not to place blame on the victim—but to understand for all involved—what “elements” provoked this out-of-control, wrong behavior.
Maybe the real issue here is not what Smith said, but that he tried to share his opinion in an off-the-cuff manner that did not result in him being misunderstood and his actual point being distorted into something ugly and unbecoming of a respectable man.
Unfortunately, Smith never really discussed Ray Rice other than saying that he “probably deserves more than a 2-game suspension.” However, First Take hosts Smith and Bayless never actually discussed what consequences Ray Rice does deserve for committing domestic violence against his then-girlfriend Janay Palmer. This was a lost opportunity to interrogate the response of the NFL to another domestic violence incident.
