Jada Rice, daughter of NFL legend Jerry Rice, is sounding off on defenders of the Charlotte Hornets’ Miles Bridges. The restricted free agent was arrested and charged with felony domestic violence last month for allegedly brutalizing his wife Mychelle Johnson. Rice objected to the men on Instagram defending Bridges in the comment section under images Johnson posted of the injuries she suffered.
“There are men in the comments still rooting for this man. Ladies, stay strapped, like I said. A lot of misogynistic homoeroticism going on,” Rice said on her Instagram Story. “They’re like ‘he will be a successful anyway, f-ck women.’ Even though the story would be different had it been their mother, daughter, or sister. Do better…”
The images and emergency room report Johnson posted via Instagram are horrific. According to her account she suffered a fracture nose, wrist, torn eardrum, torn muscles in her neck from being choked until she went to sleep, and a severe concussion.
“I hate that it has come to this but I can’t be silent anymore. I’ve allowed someone to destroy my home, abuse me in every way possible and traumatize our kids for life. I have nothing to prove to the world, but I won’t allow anyone who could do something so horrible to have no remorse and paint a picture of something I’m not,” Johnson wrote on Instagram.
“I won’t allow the people around him to continue to silence me and continue to lie to protect this person. It’s unethical, it’s immoral, it’s truly SICK. It hurts my heart because I’ve always had hope, and so much love and as scary as this is for me to do it’s time I stand up for myself.”
Bridges is due in court later this month.
Rice’s anger is understandable and justified. Obviously as a woman, but also a human being. Any men jumping in the comments defending Bridges, just because he’s a man highlights the abhorrent way women are treated. It also highlights the fact that there are men out there that simply hate women with irrational severity.
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 1 in 4 women experience severe intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner contact sexual violence, and/or intimate partner stalking with impacts such as injury, fearfulness, post-traumatic stress disorder, use of victim services, contraction of sexually transmitted diseases, etc.
Ours is a society that fundamentally does not respect women or value them as human beings. It’s been that way since the beginning of time and continues to the present day with the assault on women’s reproductive rights.
This domestic violence case has many layers, the least important of which is basketball. Bridges and Johnson are married and have two kids. One of whom allegedly witnessed the incident. That child has now experienced a significant trauma that needs to be addressed.
If this wasn’t an isolated incident, and domestic violence almost never is, how many times has the child witnessed this?
From a basketball standpoint the NBA has an opportunity to do much better than the NFL when it comes to domestic violence. Will Bridges receive a minimal suspension and go on with his career or will the league show that it values women? Time will tell.
