How do we digest Wednesday’s release of 49ers defensive tackle Ray McDonald? The termination of his contract came swiftly, within a half hour of the 49ers learning that he had been charged with sexual assault, which was just weeks after a case of domestic violence against McDonald was dropped by the Santa Clara district attorney.

REACTION 1: The hope that the sexual assault never happened; that no one experienced such a horrendous crime at McDonald’s home.

REACTION 2: That the NFL has been somewhat sensitized to domestic violence and sexual assault allegations. A year ago, McDonald might still be on the team, and depending on the result of the charge, the NFL might have done little to suspend McDonald.

Consider that in 2005, the last year of NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue’s reign, nine players were arrested for domestic violence with some being convicted of crimes related to the arrest. Of the nine, only one player was suspended for a grand total of one game.

An ESPN Outside the Lines investigation found that 88 percent of domestic violence cases against NFL players from 2000 to 2014, resulted in either no suspension, or a one-game suspension.

Also, teams are no longer tweeting out suggestions that crimes against women are brought on by the victim, which is what the Ravens did in the wake of running back Ray Rice’s knock out of his partner, Janay, in a casino elevator.

“Janay Rice says she deeply regrets the role that she played the night of the incident,” the now deleted tweet read.

The days of those outrageous tweets are over, and so are the policies of ignoring domestic violence and sexual assault.

REACTION 3: Acknowledgment of domestic violence by the league can make a difference in a society where three-quarters of the cases of violence against women go unreported. For example, when the video of Rice knocking out his fiancee surfaced, calls to the national domestic violence hotline nearly doubled.

Partially because of Rice, we know more about violence against women. For example, one out of four women will suffer intimate partner violence. Help is also readily available; the National Domestic Hotline number is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).

REACTION 4: Cultural change within the NFL remains difficult when it conflicts with profit. For example, the league continues to ignore discoveries in chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition that afflicts the injured brains of former and possibly current athletes. Dr. Ann McKee, a leading researcher of CTE in former NFL players, discovered that violence is linked to lesions found on the anterior temporal lobe of the brain, an area that governs impulse control.

McKee, and others at Boston University, made the discovery while examining the brains of deceased former athletes. Until recently, CTE could only be detected by examining slices of the brain under a microscope, which fails to help players or former players who are still living.

However, brain scan technology is developing the ability to detect lesions caused by CTE in the living. Seemingly, McDonald would be a prime candidate for such a scan. Mild-mannered and popular with his teammates, its hard to fathom that McDonald would perpetrate domestic violence or sexual assault.

Obviously, linking CTE to a loss of impulse control could do great damage to NFL popularity, but ignoring such linkages continues to jeopardize the women and children of current and former players. Hopefully, the league will realize that being part of the problem is not the solution and will only cause greater long-term damage to the sport and those outside it.