Top NFL exec breaks down during Senate domestic violence hearing

(Image credit: C-SPAN)

last updated 10 January 2015

A top NFL executive tearfully shared his story of growing up witnessing domestic violence in a Senate hearing on the topic Tuesday.

Hearing chair Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) called on the four major professional sports leagues to develop uniform policies for punishing players who commit crimes against women and children. Troy Vincent, the NFL's executive vice president of football operations, spoke candidly on the issue:

Domestic violence was a way of life in my home growing up. As young boys, my brother and I watched helplessly numerous times as our mother was beaten, and we called 911 while she lay unconscious. We saw how she struggled to seek help, and find the voice and courage to say “no more.” The sense of fear, powerlessness, and all the complexities that accompany this violence remain very real for me today.

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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.

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