Pro Bowler. Super Bowl Champion. Franchise Player. Abuser.

On Feb. 15, 2014, highly-acclaimed running back and offensive juggernaut for the Baltimore Ravens Ray Rice was arrested in Atlantic City’s Revel Casino for allegedly assaulting his fiancé Janay Palmer in the building’s elevator.

In late July, after National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Rice for an excessively punitive two games, Rice confronted the media and apologized to his family, the Ravens organization, and the city of Baltimore for his “inexcusable” actions.

“I made the biggest mistake of my life,” Rice said to reporters outside the team’s practice facility. “I let so many people down because of thirty seconds of my life that I know I can’t take back.”

After this statement, the hype of the incident subdued, and the story consequently fell into the vast sea of journalistic articles in the media.

Nevertheless, last Monday, news website TMZ released the elevator surveillance video depicting Rice and his extremely violent altercation with Palmer. Soon after this was posted on the internet, Rice, who was first released by his six-year team, was then suspended “indefinitely” by the NFL.

But, is domestic violence even that serious? According to a recent survey directed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 22.3% of women in the United States, nearly one in every four women in our entire nation, have been subjected to some form of domestic violence.

Many assume that all the twists and turns of Rice’s story have been finally straightened out, but that is certainly not the case. During the initial examination of Rice’s violent brawl with Palmer, where was the Ravens management staff? Where was Roger Goodell? Where were the NFL executives? Where was everyone? It seems as if this so-called “investigation” was conducted in a dark room with blindfolded children reaching around for the missing pieces of a puzzle but rather, finding marshmallows, Lego blocks, and Crayons.

There are two possible explanations, both of which are undoubtedly repulsive: either the investigators never saw the video, which would then implicate their oblivion, or they actually watched the tape and still decided to institute the blatantly passive two-game suspension, which would suggest their willfully ignorant views regarding domestic violence. What started as an unfortunate incident involving NFL running-back Ray Rice has now evolved into a moral issue regarding society.

If the Ravens management staff, Roger Goodell, and NFL executives “willfully ignored” the horrific acts of violence as depicted in the TMZ video, then they have indirectly perpetuated this “willful ignorance” in society. Domestic violence is not some fictitious, non-existent ghost lurking in the shadows. It is real; it is all too real.

Since the beginning of last week, there have been two other NFL players, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson and Arizona Cardinals running back Jonathan Dwyer, also charged for domestic violence. Yet, domestic violence does not solely reside in the NFL, it lies in our communities and must be stopped now.

The unfortunate truth is that these particular incidents, though publicized all over the nation, will come and go over time. The Ray Rice “incident” will fade away, diminish, and join others in the archives of history.  Nonetheless, it is up to us; the men, women, and children of a nation that promotes freedom and equality; whether this “all too real” issue of domestic violence will eventually be eradicated from our society.