Maine Governor Paul LePage has spoken movingly about the domestic abuse he suffered at the hands of his father while growing up. It’s not surprising, then, that he has a pretty intense reaction to what he calls “thugs and wife-beaters.”
Now LePage is joining the chorus of people who feel that Baltimore Raven Ray Rice’s two-game suspension after a widely publicized domestic violence dispute is just not enough. In a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, LePage brings all his Maine rage to the table, arguing that a light punishment sends the message that it’s okay “for professional athletes to beat women, just for the sake of ratings” and also that “Taking thugs and wife-beaters off the field may be bad for business, but you are playing games with people’s lives.”
In a radio interview the same week, he called for Rice to get a three-year suspension, then said that “the team should have taken him out in the back shed and taken care of him.”
LePage also pledged to boycott the NFL this season. Seeing as Maine doesn’t have an NFL team, it’s unclear exactly what this means — Will LePage give up his fantasy football team? Refuse to go to his friend’s Super Bowl party? — but his sentiment is one we can appreciate. As he wrote to Goodell, “You have the power to send a very strong message to a national audience that his behavior will not be tolerated.”
