​Welcome, ESPN College Gameday, to downtown Fargo

It’s not often football is a topic we choose to editorialize about, but two stories surrounding the sport caught our eye this week, one good and one bad.

The first is the return of ESPN’s College Gameday to Fargo for the second year in a row to highlight the success of NDSU Bison Football. The best part about this news is the decision to broadcast the show from downtown Fargo again. While it has led to some grumbling from some faithful Bison fans who think Gameday should be located near the Fargodome and tailgating NDSU fans, it does provide exposure to the notion that Fargo is more than just a city with a successful college football team -- it’s one with a progressive, growing downtown.

We’ve all ran into people whose only perception of Fargoans is from the 1996 movie “Fargo.” But showcasing Fargo in a national setting, even one around sports, and doing it in a way that highlights Fargo’s growth and diversity is one of the best ways to do it. Sure anytime 5,000 college football fans hit your downtown at 8 a.m., there’s going to be some idiots doing stuff no one would want to see on national television. Overall, however, the first year seemed to be a helpful way to poke holes in the notion that we are a bunch of small town bumpkins with Norwegian accents who like to frequent buffets and murder people.

Fargo has had its share of national attention lately aside from sports and while regular downtown dwellers may grumble about huge crowds and road closures, ultimately, College Gameday in downtown is a good thing. This exposure will be in the setting of one of the brightest lights in Fargo’s recent successful growth. Downtown businesses, especially restaurants and bars, opening early to host the large crowds and bask in the glory of the event won’t complain much either. And we’ve all had a chance to frequent some of the awesome newer restaurants and bars opening in the last year in downtown, maybe it’s time for this crowd to give it a try.

The second story that has everyone talking is less positive. The saga of NFL running back Ray Rice’s punch to his fiancée in a hotel elevator has been one that underscored the extreme lack of punishment for millionaire pro athletes for horrific actions, especially domestic violence. The fact that his contract was rescinded and his suspension made indefinite only after video of the incident surfaced is an abomination. The facts of the case didn’t change with the release of the video, they were just laid bare for all Americans to see in crystal clear disgusting detail and their outrage was immediate.

The initial suspension of Rice for only two games by the NFL while suspending other players for as long as a year for less egregious offenses, such as drug use or gambling, only showed to highlight the double standard in treatment for domestic violence offenses. Is a brutal physical assault of a woman any worse if you see video of it? What changed was more exposure to the lack of punishment by more people becoming aware of it and the cash cow NFL suddenly became worried about it hurting its image.

One of the worst aspects of this has been the chatter of asking for it, victim blaming defense out there about Rice’s now wife, Janay. The Baltimore Ravens deleted a tweet just this week that said, “Janay Rice deeply regrets the role she played the night of the incident.” The people responsible for putting that notion out there are probably still working for the team.

While the NFL has since changed its policies regarding punishment of domestic violence offenses, it seems like too little, too late. Our own Senator Heidi Heitkamp said this week that NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell, the man responsible for handing down the initial punishment, should probably resign as a result of all this. We agree and don’t say probably. If this behavior is only met with a slap on the wrist, it is a form of condoning it. Ray Rice is not the first NFL player to receive preferential treatment and he won’t be the last. But maybe the resulting outrage can make a dent in changing the attitude of America’s most popular sport that their athletes are above the law and any type of punishment we all would receive for these awful actions.