Mike Singletary says the domestic violence controversy surrounding former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice shouldn't be an issue involving just the NFL.
Domestic violence is a societal issue, the former Chicago Bears and Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker told members of the Little Rock Touchdown Club on Tuesday afternoon at the Little Rock Marriott.
"When you talk about domestic violence, it's a sad thing that we just talk about the NFL," Singletary said.
Rice, 27, was cut by the Ravens on Monday afternoon, hours after celebrity gossip website TMZ.com posted a video of the running back punching his then-fiancee in February during an altercation in an elevator in an Atlantic City, N.J., casino. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced later Monday that the league had suspended Rice indefinitely.
Originally, the league suspended Rice for only two games after the initial video release of the incident showed Rice dragging his fiancee -- who is now his wife -- off the elevator. Goodell said Tuesday that no NFL official had seen the video of Rice striking his fiancee before its release Monday.
Singletary, 55, recalled a domestic dispute involving his father, Charles, and his mother, Rudell, while growing up in Houston. Singletary said the relationship between his mother and father, who divorced when he was 12, opened his eyes.
"Being a kid, there's nothing you can do except stand and watch," said Singletary, who spent his entire 12-year NFL career (1981-1992) with the Chicago Bears, where he was a 10-time Pro Bowl selection, an eight-time All-Pro and helped lead the Bears to their first and only Super Bowl championship in 1985. "I made a decision as a young boy, and my mother always told me, 'Son, if it ever crosses your mind that you need to hit a woman, just get the heck out. Nobody deserves that. Be a man. Real men don't hit women.' "
Singletary and his wife Kim have seven children. He said he sympathizes with men who have made mistakes in the past, including Rice, but he is concerned about how younger men often fail to control their emotion and anger.
"I am from the old school," said Singletary, the youngest of 10 siblings. "There are boundaries. There is right and wrong. There is yes and there is no. There is a law. What's even more important is there is dignity and respect, and we all have to live by it. All of us. I don't care who we are. None of us should ever be above the law.
"So when you say what do you think about domestic violence in the NFL, it's all over the country. It just happened to be in an elevator that day. Whether it's Ray Rice or any other person, I feel the same way.
"Unfortunately, some of these kids, some of these men, have never had the opportunity and sit down with a man who loved them enough and told them this is what men do. We don't do this. It's as simple as that."
Singletary, who was 18-22 in two-plus seasons (2008-2010) as coach of the San Francisco 49ers and was a linebackers coach with the Minnesota Vikings the past three seasons, currently serves with the NFL as a senior adviser to Troy Vincent, the NFL's executive vice president of football operations.
When asked how he would have handled the Rice situation if he were still coaching, Singletary said it was tough to say without knowing all the facts.
"Without being there, being in their room when they're talking about it, I have no idea what their stance was," he said. "I'm sure they had a lack of knowledge just like everybody else. Until you see the video, it's up to the imagination when they come out of the elevator."
Sports on 09/10/2014
