by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–For even the San Francisco 49ers the former Baltimore Raven Ray Rice situation is so volatile and so much bigger than the NFL. This is a news story that has gone from national to worldwide and beyond the sports news and it’s brought a big discussion on domestic violence and how were suppose to preceive it. Its been a study of what’s right and what’s wrong here.

49ers lineman Ray McDonald is the first case of domestic violence since Rice to come and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell imposed an automatic six game suspension for any player or employee of the NFL who engages in domestic violence. After the new rules were put in place by Goodell it’s certainly in the forefront of this and the 49ers are in a very tight spot.

They want their players to contribute that’s what they pay them for and at the same time McDonald is accused of something very bad. Everybody is waiting to learn the outcome of this case, the league will have to take a position on this. Suspended 49ers play by play broadcaster Ted Robinson didn’t show any sensitivity towards the female view point on the Rice case, there has been a big problem in domestic violence where the victim ends up getting blamed.

Typically in almost 90 percent of cases the victim is a woman, Robinson called Janay Rice, Rice’s wife “pathetic” for marrying him and that’s not sympathetic to the victim and that’s just wrong. Maybe Robinson didn’t mean what he said but that’s how it came out. You’ve given the climate in this discussion the 49ers said that Robinson should have been a little extra sensative especially with the McDonald case going on.

Oakland Raiders update: The Raiders return back to Oakland after losing to the New York Jets last week to play the Houston Texans. It was a tough road loss and the Raiders get to come home now and they should be a little more comfortable. The Raiders are playing a team that was one of the worse teams in the league last year. Let’s face it Houston is not that bad.

The Texans had some bad breaks and last year their quarterback Matt Schaub completly went into the tank and Schaub now is with the Raiders and is not even good enough to be the starter. The Raiders have a chance in this game on Sunday. They weren’t too awful against the Jets and Houston won last week. The Texans have alot of talented players.

Most notably the best player on the Texans is JJ Watt who is a defensive end and could be the best at that position in the entire NFL right now. The Raiders may not have an enforcer thats going to play against the Texans in Sunday’s game. They have to tighten things up that have to play more successfully, their defense is still a work in progress.

It’s questionable if the Raiders can get to a point if they can stop anybody, the Texans have some good players on offense. The Texans quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is not that great as a quarterback but they stil have Andre Johnson at wide receiver and Arian Foster at running back. Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins is up and coming and is a good young receiver and the Texans are not easy to defend so the Raiders could have their hands full on Sunday.

David Zizmor does commentary on the Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49ers each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com