Sports fans like to use Roger Goodell as a scapegoat.
It’s hard not to when considering Goodell’s original two-game suspension of Ray Rice in light of the now-infamous TMZ video of Rice striking his then-fiancé inside an Atlantic City casino.
MORE: Sampling of NFL players arrested on domestic violence charges
Anyone who has read the now-public Josh Brown police report from 2015 has reason to be frightened. A one-game suspension is reminiscent of the pre-Ray Rice era, when the league had no formal or consistent approach to violence against women. The 2014 NFL domestic violence policy — a unilaterally adopted policy by Goodell and the owners that was never bargained for with the NFLPA — states that mitigating factors can reduce the league-mandated six-game suspension for a first-time offender.