You articulated very well my central problem with the ruling, the parsing between the terms assault and non-violent. That has been a sticking point with me though I haven’t said it nearly as well as you did. I think most women would view assault of any kind as being versions of violence.
BUT… this is not a law or a semantics class and as far as I’m concerned the same holds now as held over the last few months; that no one is going to move off their established beliefs and trying to bludgeon each other into moral submission is a stupid waste of time. The decision to support or abandon the team is each individual’s to make. What the ruling is now or ends up being really shouldn’t factor in much. I’ve heard some say they will support the team/city and not the individuals but sort of blurring my eyes to the player numbers and just rooting for the colors is a contortion I’m not sure I can pull off. For some the ruling becomes the structure around the intellectual gymnastics needed to continue supporting the team. The lighter the sentence, the easier the justifications and ease of sticking the landing. I’m not sure I’m that good at it.
So personally I’m indeed still very conflicted. I have a wife who was assaulted years before we were together and this whole thing has pretty much put a black X on the team for her. I have a 17yr old daughter who is just starting to navigate the world of men and boys (late bloomer) and I’d hate for her to think I don’t take it seriously. But I’m a life long Browns fan and I’d never be able to root for another team. The idea of just burying football altogether is just bleak and frankly, not terribly realistic. It’s a quandary. But I’m pretty sure no one this board nor any revisiting of the existing evidence is going to move the needle a whole lot for me. So I’m not here to try to move your needle. It might just be that I don’t wear the Jersey and I don’t toot the horn but I low key keep an eye on things and just hope the good eventually overwhelms the bad. Kinda pathetic.
We’ll see how the ruling shakes out. And I’ll see how my fandom shakes out.
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