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Shame On Us For Enabling Domestic Violence

On the Sunday/Monday overnight radio show on WFAN, I was disgusted listening to callers tell WFAN’s Marc Malusis that they are not making a big deal about Jose Reyes’ domestic violence episode with his wife.

The thought was Reyes served his time by being suspended for 51 games. Some even said it was none of our business. The kicker was some callers saying he was not even charged.

Poor Malusis for dealing with these idiots. He tried in vain to say there’s no defense for what Reyes did, and he called out callers for saying they don’t care about what happened to Reyes and his wife.

This shouldn’t be surprising, especially when fans gave Reyes a standing ovation and chanted “Jose! Jose! Jose!” in his Brooklyn Cyclones appearance Sunday afternoon. Sports fans are willing to give an athlete a second, third or fourth chance as long as he contributes in winning games for their teams. This is just not only in our town. It’s everywhere in the world.

This is the culture we live in, and this is unacceptable. Are we this out of touch that we are so into winning games that we tend to ignore a person doing a criminal activity?

Domestic violence is not a laughing issue. It’s something that should be taken seriously. Fans can’t be ignoring stuff like this. They can’t enable an athlete to get away with this type of behavior, even if an athlete served his punishment.

Somehow if the Mets were doing well and Reyes is a shell of himself, the fans would not welcome him back at all and the Mets wouldn’t bother giving him a second chance.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, though.

For the record, Reyes won’t do much for the Mets. He does not have the speed he used to have from 10 years ago, and let’s not forget he is injury-prone. That should be easy enough for the Mets to not to bother with him.

The Mets should not have bothered signing him to a minor-league contract to begin with. They needed to take a stand on domestic violence by not giving him a chance. If some other team wants to do it, more power to them, but the Mets should be above this. It’s time for teams to stop enabling this type of behavior.

How can the Mets sell Reyes to their female fanbase? What message are they sending to their female fans in bringing a wife-beater to their team?

Maybe if teams stop giving second chances, domestic violence by athletes would stop. It would mean athletes would be accountable for their actions. What a refreshing concept!

The Mets don’t come out looking good here, but what do they care? It’s about winning games right now and improving that putrid offense.

Sometimes winning is not worth it. There comes a time integrity and ethics matter.

This was the Mets’ chance to say no, and they failed. They also failed their women fanbase.

Reyes remains apologetic about his actions and completed counseling.

This type of act only encourages Neanderthals to spew nonsense on sports radio and Twitter in defending their heroes no matter the crime they created.

Maybe if fans stood up for what is right, guys like Reyes, won’t get second chances in sports. They would be serving time like your average person.

But hey, winning Is too important to worry about petty issues like domestic violence.

Leslie Monteiro
I'm the author of 10 books. If you're looking for autographed copies just go to my Twitter @Sportsology and DM me.

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