Domestic violence is a very serious issue, the Rooneys were right to take strong action when a second Steelers was involved in a domestic dispute in the span of eleven days.
But Dan Rooney dropped a verbal bombshell with comments explaining why the team decided to cut Cedric Wilson after he hit his wife but not James Harrison after he had done the same Rooney stated:
What Jimmy Harrison was doing and how the incident occurred, what he was trying to do was really well worth it,” Rooney said of Harrison’s initial intent with his son. “He was doing something that was good, wanted to take his son to get baptized where he lived and things like that. She said she didn’t want to do it.
Just as there is no excuse for domestic violence, there is no excuse for anything but a clear condemnation of it.
- Rooney’s clarification later in the day, helped rectify things somewhat, but the damage has been done.
The Steelers are one of the NFL’s marquee franchises, and the Rooney’s rightly hold a reputation for integrity in the league.
Cedric Wilson’s crime was clearly premeditated, and if the Steelers if they want to judge player indiscretions on an individual basis, that is their right.
But both men committed a crime, and with respect to that fact, Rooney’s statement should not have left any room for equivocation.
