Football: (1) an American game played between two teams of eleven players in which the ball is in possession of one side at a time and is advanced by running or passing and (2) a game that could change society’s domestic violence policy outside of the sport.

Let me tell you more about the latter definition. Here is a time line of the recent events in former running back Ray Rice’s criminal activity:

February 15, 2014: Ray Rice and his wife Janay Palmer are arrested for assault when they both struck each other in an Atlantic City, New Jersey, casino.

March 27: Ray Rice is indicted by an Atlantic County grand jury on a charge of third-degree aggravated assault.

May 1: Rice pleads not guilty to aggravated assault and agrees to do a program for first-time offenders that would clear his charges in one year.

July 24: The NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell announce a two-game suspension of Rice.

August 28: After criticism of the relatively short suspension, the NFL announces a new, harsher policy for domestic violence, in which a player receives a six-game suspension for a first-time offense and is banned for life on a second offense.

September 8: TMZ releases surveillance footage of Rice punching Palmer in the elevator. Soon after, Rice is given an indefinite suspension from Goodell, and the Baltimore Ravens terminate his contract.

After this series of events happened, the Associated Press proved that NFL personnel did view the tape before TMZ released it. This means that the tape was seen by the NFL, but it was ignored until TMZ publicly released it.

Goodell made a huge mistake. He failed to report the truth of the case and did not initially give Rice the appropriate suspension. He has danced around the fact that he messed up in a big way, and everyone else, including many players, is noticing his blatant mistake. There is absolutely no reason that it took harsh criticism and an eventual video tape release for Goodell to provide a just punishment.

The Rice case is certainly not the first time that Goodell has dealt with domestic violence. In fact, he has already been involved in two other cases this season with San Francisco’s Ray McDonald and Carolina’s Greg Hardy. However, Goodell and the teams have handled each case differently: McDonald does not have a suspension yet and Hardy has been placed on an exempt list, which requires players to remain away from all team activities.

These inconsistencies exemplify why Goodell and the NFL Player Association are creating a new conduct policy and why Goodell is losing his absolute jurisdiction over the rulings.

Simply put, the NFL did not have a specific policy set up for offenders of domestic violence, and neither do 70% of U.S. workplaces, according to NBC News. While the NFL plans to fix their obvious problems, the American workforce looks to follow the same model of dealing with domestic violence.

Domestic violence is a crime that shows where your morals stand in regards to respect of all men and women. Since football is already a violent sport, the NFL cannot afford to continue its trend of mistreating women. Over the years, a stereotype has been created that football players do not respect women, which is not true of most players.

Goodell’s ineffectiveness in his handling of the situation and his hypocrisy in comparison to other incidents of domestic violence are not the only reasons why this case is important. The reason the Rice case is so important is because the case is affecting not only the NFL, but all of American society.

Goodell’s decision to finally form a domestic violence policy is long overdue, but so are the still-inexistent policies of American employers.