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MLK's picture

My deepest sympathies to what you and your daughter went through. It is hard to process how some people can be so cruel. I certainly haven't figured out how to process it yet. Not sure of the need to minimize my experience because I am not related to the abused person but that's tangential to the overall point.
Let me clarify what I mean by Zero Tolerance. I support an employer's right not to employ someone because they have committed domestic abuse as a broad principle. One of my favorite aspects of sports is the friendly tribalism the ability to say I am a mariner fan and these are the people I root for. I have less desire to wear a Seahawks shirt now then I did before. I don't believe in thoughtless applications of such principles; to use your example I think the existing law that someone under 21 who is pulled over with a .01 BAC can be given a DUI is not a well calibrated punishment.
I believe Frank Clark is free to live his life and any employer can run a background check and decide if that is a person they want associated with their brand and they want to work with. I think certain professions require higher moral character than others. Professional athletes are venerated role models in this country whether they like it are not. If I was convicted of embezzlement I don't think I would be able to find a job as a CFO no matter how repentant I truly was. The value of that comparison may depend upon how much you feel representing high moral character is a job requirement of a football player but it is one for me.
To the extent that we demand violence on the field from players and forbid it from all other walks of life I cede the point. It does make me question my fandom of the sport in general. I do note that the vast majority of football players (of which I am a former one) don't seem to struggle with the distinction.
I believe you are free not to have this impact your opinion of the Seahawks. I can feel differently and have less desire to root for the team when they employ someone who has battered women. If the team decides that there are more people like me who feel that way and make a business decision not to employ domestic abusers I support that decision. That is what I meant by zero tolerance.
Perhaps Frank Clark is truly remorseful understands the harm his actions have caused and is working to make up that damage beyond what is legally required of him. I don't know enough of the situation to judge. I do know overall statistics of how many abusers are repeat offenders and how many incidents of abuse are unreported. So It may be a moral failing of mine that I don't give Frank Clark every benefit of the doubt but it is not the way I feel.

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