Armour: Punish Bears for Ray McDonald's latest arrest

Ray McDonald isn't the only one who needs to pay a price for his latest domestic abuse arrest.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell ought to slap the Chicago Bears with a hefty fine and dock them a draft pick or two. Suspend general manager Ryan Pace for four games. Ban owner George McCaskey from the stadium for the first half of the season while he's at it, too, since it was McCaskey's enlightened decision to blow off the alleged victim when he gave the OK to sign McDonald.

It's not enough to simply punish the players who inflict the abuse on women and children. If the NFL wants the good work it's done over the last year to combat domestic violence to actually mean something, it has to go after the owners and GMs who have long enabled them.

"We believe in second chances, but when we signed Ray we were very clear what our expectations were if he was to remain a Bear," Pace said in the statement announcing the Bears had released McDonald. "He was not able to meet the standard and the decision was made to release him."

Oh, please. Anyone who followed the McDonald story could have seen this coming.

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The defensive end was booked on suspicion of felony domestic violence after an incident with his fiancée last August, while he was with San Francisco 49ers. No charges were filed after the alleged victim refused to cooperate.

The Niners stood by McDonald initially. But when he became a suspect in a sexual assault investigation, they cut him loose, citing his "pattern of poor decision-making."

That didn't stop McCaskey and the Bears, though. After initially rejecting Pace's request to sign McDonald, McCaskey had a change of heart. McDonald was really and truly sorry, McCaskey said. Why, he even dug into his own pocket to pay for the flight to Chicago to show how sincere he was!

"The fact that he proposed that idea, I gave him a lot of credit for," McCaskey said after the Bears signed McDonald. "And he was very candid, very forthright."

Except for that whole promising to stay out of trouble thing, apparently, given that McDonald was arrested Monday morning on suspicion of domestic abuse and child endangerment.

Remember, it was McCaskey who took the time to list all of the people he consulted to be sure McDonald really wasn't a bad guy. McDonald's mom. Urban Meyer, McDonald's coach in college. Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who had the same position in San Francisco when McDonald was there. People at the NFL.

And the victim, too, right? I mean, that's a no-brainer. If you're going to sign someone who's been accused of abusing someone, you need to at least hear the other side of the story, don't you?

Not in the Bears world.

"An alleged victim, I think — much like anybody else who has a bias in this situation — there's a certain amount of discounting in what they have to say," McCaskey said.

Discounting. Yep. McCaskey really said that. Police arrested McDonald because they believed "he was the dominant aggressor and that his conduct had resulted in visible injury" to his fiancée, according to court records. That's not "bias." That's abuse, and McCaskey flat-out gave McDonald a pass on it.

Goodell can suspend players for entire seasons at a time, and spend millions in legal fees squabbling with the players' union over the personal conduct policy. But if the NFL wants to curtail domestic violence among its players and send a message to society at large, it has to crack down on the people who have the real influence.

The ones who write the checks.

So long as there's a Ryan Pace or George McCaskey – Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones for that matter, too – willing to turn a blind eye to a player's abhorrent behavior, the NFL is no more evolved than it was in the bad old days before that second Ray Rice video surfaced.

Domestic violence doesn't happen in a vacuum. To break the cycle, it's going to take more than punishing those who abuse. Those who allow the culture of abuse to fester need to be held accountable, too.

Starting with the Bears.

Follow columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.