Should he have spanked a child with a switch? I was spanked with a belt by my father who was a policeman. Sometimes if I moved during the spanking there would be marks on my hands where I tried to protect my butt. Right? Wrong? I dunno, but I have "whipped" my children with my hand, and for the most part they are not the a hole kid I was. Culturally the more education a person has the less spanking there will be in that house. Right or wrong it is not against the law to spank a child in the state of Texas. AD crossed the line and he has apologized for it. What would be a just punishment for AD? Prison time? A fine? Never get to see his kid again? Today on a local sports radio show a black man was talking about how spanking is a cultural thing in the black community. This black radio announcer went on to say that he has never spanked his 5 year old daughter, but had "thumped" her in the head many times to get her attention.

So to each their own I guess.
I love the new he has apologized lets move on thing. Really apologies are now the legal currency of the day?" I beat my kid bloody and bruised is that frowned on here? Well if I would have known that would be a problem I certainly wouldn't have hit him with a stick 15-16 times including across his scrotum apparently. I just didn't know, my bad. Time to get on to the game." Yeah that seems like enough punishment let's move on.
I am not sure anyone is saying that a simple apology and moving on is enough
. I do have some discomfort with the prospect that NFL football players are now held to some moral standard we do not require of people in even more important societal positions. I have some significant concerns with players being punished due to media/public opinion lynchings before they have even had due process in a court of law. That is effing scary to me.
Should the guy who delivers the mail lose his job if he is indicted by a grand jury for child abuse? What about the guy ringing you up at the grocery store? Doesn't anyone find it a little scary that whenever someone does something or is alleged to have done something that crosses the line of the Twitter conscious-phere that they somehow become the most evil person in the world and that they should lose their job?
As alluded to in many other comments in many other forums, you have guys who were involved in the death of another human being still playing, still making a living working for television networks, etc. I don't want to get political by any stretch of the imagination, but we have politicians trying to take the political high ground and tell the NFL what to do. We have the National Organization for Women, which was absolutely silent when Bill Clinton was being accused of sexual harassment and rape (never mind banging interns and cheating on his wife) calling for the commissioner (basically the president) of the NFL to step down.
Are you ####### kidding me? We have politicians getting on their high horse and acting as if they have the moral authority and right to tell a private organization how they should handle their business when they collectively turn a blind eye, rationalize and explain away the corrupt and illegal behavior of their colleagues? Something like 15% of the Democratic senators in the state of California are facing criminal charges and the Dem leadership will not even expel them. The world is off its rocker right now and I have no idea how we find some semblance of common sense, proportion and moral consistency and fairness.