Two days after the Patriots took the field with Jabrill Peppers, who remains on trial for domestic assault, the Red Sox signed Aroldis Chapman, who will forever be the first Major League Baseball player to be suspended under the MLB Joint Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Act. and the Child Abuse Policy Rule.

There were no protests at Gillette Stadium. There has been little fan outrage over Chapman. Talk radio fans were more concerned about his high walk rate than his disturbing personal history.

Society has crossed a sad threshold. When it comes to domestic violence by athletes, too many have become numb, tired, or simply desensitized. Too many fans are no longer sparking outrage, which makes it that much easier for those still fighting to have their voices silenced.

• BET: Check out our MA Sports Betting Guidewhere you can learn basic terminology, definitions and how to read the odds for those interested in learning how to bet in Massachusetts.

THE Patriots And Red Sox The climate assessment was correct. They could take the actions they did without fear of real backlash.

There have been so many incidents since Chapman that it’s easy to forget them and impossible to keep track of them all.

The Patriots believe the facts will ultimately exonerate Peppers. It would be great if they were right and the horrible acts he’s accused of didn’t happen. But it can be assumed that the prosecutor is aware of the same evidence and that the case has not been dropped. The Patriots could have opted to pay Peppers while keeping him off the field until his January trial date. Robert Kraft took a moral stand by publicly stating, “If what was reported is true, he is gone” after his arrest.

But it didn’t stop Peppers from playing Sunday.

If the Patriots believe he’s innocent, say so. Tell the world they will never let someone wear their uniform if they suspect they might be guilty of this. If they turn out to be wrong, they’ll look stupid, but at least they were trying to do the right thing. This is the path of least resistance. Publicly, they highlighted the NFL’s decision and said nothing else.

“The legal process outside the building and what we think happened inside the building, but at the same time the NFL took him off that commissioner’s exempt list and that’s with this we must face.” ” Jerod Mayo said.

But at least with the Patriots, they chose to stand with a guy they have a relationship with. The Red Sox decided to sign on to Chapman and paid $10 million to do so.

In 2015, the Red Sox’s own investigation told them to avoid Chapman according to the former Red Sox assistant general manager Zack Scott tweeted:

“After 2015, we agreed to send Margot and Marco Hernandez to the Reds for Chapman, but that fell apart when we discovered disturbing details about his domestic dispute. We actually informed the Reds of this. We pivoted to Kimbrel and Chapman went to the Yankees. I guess enough time has passed without incident for the Sox to be OK now.

Chapman was not arrested or charged in part because the victim chose not to cooperate with the investigation. In incidents of domestic violence, this is extremely common. The fear of ramifications or repercussions that come from following up are real.

He was eventually traded to the Yankees, who took advantage of the incident to obtain Chapman at a discount. Hal Steinbrenner had no regrets.

“Honestly, it was manageable from the moment he got here last year,” Hal Steinbrenner said. The United States today in 2017. “He was great. Look, he admitted he made a mistake. He paid the fine. Sooner or later we forget, right? This is how we are supposed to be in life. He did everything right and said everything right when he was with us.

Ignoring the fact that he used the trite phrase “messed up” to describe an incident in which Chapman allegedly choked his girlfriend and fired eight shots into her garage wall in anger, Steinbrenner was right. Sooner or later we forget. And lately, it’s too often happened sooner.

Teams and leagues want these things gone. They want to forgive so that fans will forget. And it works. Teams and players hunker down, weather the initial storm, and move on. They know something terrible is going to happen somewhere else that will take them out of the spotlight. This sends the message to players that they can do this without their careers being threatened. This makes the Bruins‘ decision to quietly untangling from Milan Lucic even after the charges were dropped, admirable in comparison.

Ben Roethlisberger is being treated like a hero in Pittsburgh. No one is talking about his six-game suspension for sexual assault.

Even Ray Rice has seen his image restored. Last year, the Ravens honored Rice. The same Ray Rice, whose name is synonymous with domestic violence after a video surfaced showing him punching his fiancée twice in an Atlantic City elevator, then dragging her unconscious body away. They’re both lucky he didn’t kill her or break her neck.

Because there was video, Rice never played again. No team could stand the optics.

But there was no Peppers video. No video of Chapman. So they’ll be off the field, right here in New England, while their teams hope Hal Steinbrenner was right and we’ll all forget sooner or later.

Follow Matt Vautour, MassLive sports columnist on Twitter at @MattVautour424.