In some ways the National Football League(NFL) resembles a circus. It consists of the entertaining, the colorful, and the ridiculous. It even has its own sad clown, commissioner Roger Goodell. On a crisp, young Sunday morning, police arrived at 49ers defensive end Ray McDonald’s house and arrested him for domestic abuse. McDonald had beaten his fiancee at his own birthday party. Yet this act has been performed before, 83 times before.

Domestic violence frequents NFL crimes the most by a large margin(55.4 percent of crimes). Three days prior to McDonald’s arrest, the NFL tried to fix things by making the suspension rules more strict. First time offenders get six game suspensions, while repeat offenders get a year suspension or more.

A huge improvement compared to the embarassing two game suspension Ray Rice received for dragging his wife out of an elevator on camera(before they saw the video of him knocking her out), it still feels late. Six games, still less than half of a full 16 game season, while marijuana would get a player suspended for a whole season. The fact that Goodell left Rice’s suspension unchanged after the rule change just shows that he refuses give up one of his favorite circus animals. Even if that circus animal ate someone in the crowd and tore down the circus tent on camera.

Now suspended indefinitely, Rice’s case shows the true ignorance of the NFL. No one needed to see the actual video of him punching his wife to know that it happened. The NFL just needs any excuse to keep their players on the field. Let alone the alleged evidence that the NFL received the tape three months prior to when it was released publicly. Overall, this situation has turned from bad, to worse, to unprecedentedly horrific for the league and its image.

This is all due to the severe lack of gender diversity in NFL offices. Men will make decisions based on what men find most important and beneficial. A man would never understand what Ray Rice’s wife felt, or any woman in an abusive relationship feels for that matter. The NFL’s patriarchal hierarchy weakens it in terms of social issues. A woman’s perspective would have solved the issue long ago, before it snowballed into an avalanche of controversy and disrespect.

The NFL, the most successful professional sports league in the United States, grosses billions of dollars a year and has the most loyal fanbase of any professional sport. With enough star athletes to give the Justice League a run for their money, this scandal will not damage their status beyond repair. The NFL will not lose ratings or ticket sales or endorsement deals. Because the NFL is run by men for men with no female input or values.