It's pretty widely accepted that domestic violence happens all the time in the NFL

This is a terrible combination of simplification and exaggeration. The reality is far, far more complicated. Domestic violence arrests make up a large proportion of all NFL player arrests, but the raw number of those arrests is still comfortably below what you'd expect from the rate for men in that age group. It's tricky analysis that changes depending on what demographic you are comparing the players to. But it is difficult if not impossible to rigorously defend your assessment that it happens "all the time." Well actually I will walk that back a little bit. I think you're right that that is common knowledge. My point is that it is at best a reductive characterization of reality and thus shouldn't be common knowledge.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-rate-of-domestic-violence-arrests-among-nfl-players/

Because like it or not they're very much in the public spotlight and they very much depend on fan support and fans watching their games for their income stream. If the NFL is unwilling to take basic steps to prevent their employees from hurting others then I'm not willing to buy tickets or merchandise or watch games.

I'm glad you said that and thanks for articulating your reasoning (not being sarcastic). I just fundamentally disagree with you, I think. I think it's absurd to want private organizations to operate shadow justice systems that punish their employees according to the dictates of the company's profits and losses. I realize this seems jarring because I'm saying it in connection with the punishment handed down to someone who did something so horrible.

But I stand by it, because the same grounds you offer in support of this punishment (we're in the public eye, can't have you threatening our revenue streams) are ripe for misuse and abuse.

Either he intentionally gave Rice a light punishment to keep him on the field for his buddy, or he actually thought the suspension was appropriate in which case there's some disregard for domestic violence going on

Underlying that statement is the assumption that there is someone at the NFL office who is capable of figuring out what constitutes the appropriate "punishment" for this case. Of course there isn't. Should there be? Courts and legislatures have been trying to answer that question for decades and many argue that they haven't been able to find a good answer. And it's their job to figure stuff like that out. Why should the NFL have the institutional competency to handle this case? All of the crap about whether or not Goodell saw the tape, who questioned who and when, the CBA rule against double punishment, etc., are all the sorts of issues for which courts have rules in place to protect the accused, assure transparency, and promote the orderly resolution of the charge. It's why these kinds of things are adjudicated in courts and not in your boss's office.

And if you think Goodell has "some disregard for domestic violence going on," what precisely is he disregarding? The victim of Ray's horrible act came to him and implored him to let her and Ray work it out as a family. Why does Goddell's "regard" in this situation extend beyond the two people in the case?

If you think he has to go against the wishes of the victim in favor of some sort of organizational stance for the NFL, I again have to wonder why. Should the NFL do this for every crime? Should there be a list for each team of # of games you'll get suspended for appended to every misdemeanor and felony for every state there's a team? Or is it better to just let reactionary, post hoc suspensions come down according to how much the player's bad PR threatens the league's revenue streams?

I find all of this particularly counterproductive in the case of Goodell because it's distracting fans from actually applying this energy to hold him accountable for the sort of stuff he actually should have fully specified league policies for, like head injuries. Goodell will take the hammering for the Rice thing with a smile on his face if it continues to bury the headlines about the concussion or painkiller lawsuits. Suspending Rice for a year and writing hysterically paternalistic letters to Adrian Peterson lets fans vent their moral outrage without canceling Sunday Ticket. It's perfect for Goodell and the league.