Let’s here it for the women who’ve been beating the drum on the NFL domestic violence scandal – CBS’ Hannah Storm, who made it personal; ESPN’s Janet McManus, who keeps on digging. (Truth in advertising: Jane and I were colleagues at Gannett. She’s one of those brilliantly educated people who can talk just as knowledgeably about classics as she can about sports. Jane – one of the models for Brenna James, the sophisticated sports columnist in my forthcoming novel in “The Games Men Play Series,” “In This Place You Hold Me” – also brings a compassionate eye to what she does.)

That combination of smarts and empathy is something that’s sorely lacking as recent developments suggest that NFL and team leaders just don’t get it. The latest to weigh in – and trip all over himself in the process – was Baltimore Ravens’ owner Stephen J. Bisciotti, who was on the defensive at a news conference, claiming that he and his team did not press the league to bury former running back Ray Rice’s arrest for cold-cocking his future wife, Janay. Let’s just say that the adage that a good defense stops a good offense doesn’t apply here.

Indeed, The New York Times’ Juliet Macur – another heroine fighting the good fight – said in a Sept. 23 column that Bisciotti, commish Roger Goodell and company should “please just stop talking.” ...