Miami takes down Tom Brady! The Vikings crush the Rams! The Cardinals are on top of NFC West, above
the 49ers! The Bills are on top of AFC
East, while the Patriots are on the bottom!
The Texans are 2-0, and on top of AFC South! Luther Bliss to Teddy Roosevelt: “This is
Kentucky, sir. Everything is topsy turvy.” I want to see how this season develops, if
only out of morbid curiosity.
Well, I
did… until this Adrian Peterson
thing blew up. Who knew what was going
on? On the Vikings site, the fans all
charged immediately into “DUMP HIM IMMEDIATELY” mode. Only a few said things like “let’s wait to
see how this pans out,” or “innocent until proven guilty.” Charles Barkley offered his predictably “out
of the box”/”I don’t care what anyone else thinks” support for AP’s behavior. As with Donald Sterling, I’m baffled as to why
off-field behavior which doesn’t result in the athlete locked up pending the
trial, will still result in a suspension or deactivation. I can understand if a bank employee is
accused of embezzlement – something directly related to his job – they would
suspend the person pending the investigation.
But switching his kid in Texas doesn’t seem to bear any connection with
running a football in a game.
For
that matter, neither does punching your wife in a hotel elevator. In Ray Rice’s case, the incident took place
in February 2014, the couple later reconciled, they’re married now, and the
local prosecutor’s office already made the determination not to press
charges. I’m not aware that their
CURRENT relationship is abusive. If it
was one incident which was resolved at the time – however shocking it might
have been – there is really no practical relevance to bringing this up
now. As Mrs. Rice herself complained, it
just embarrasses both of them and costs her husband his job, without protecting
her. Ruining their lives and livelihood
is a big price to pay simply so the rest of us can feel morally
self-righteous.
Imagine,
on your two week vacation, you go to Las Vegas.
Something happens. Maybe not a
corpse or a missing person, but something which results in a criminal charge
against you, though it’s later dropped and you don’t even serve a day in jail;
you hired a local attorney who resolved the matter without so much as a single
court appearance on your part. You
return home, go back to your job. Then
the s**t hits the fan. Your boss finds
out. Although the incident had no
bearing on your job, your boss still decides to fire you because of “what
happened in Vegas.”
From
what I can tell, the logic behind suspending or releasing a player for
off-field behavior which does not otherwise compromise his ability to play
(e.g. Aaron Hernandez locked up pending a murder trial, or Michael Vick going
to prison) is that athletes are celebrities and public figures, and that
sporting events are public events. The
games are not conducted at fields away from public scrutiny, with the results
simply posted after the fact for fans to know about.
Therefore
the public has some expectations as to the character of the athletes that they
watch playing. Will the fans still come
to the games, or watch them on TV or cable, if the team includes wife beaters
or child abusers? Will they still drink
Budweiser if the brewery continues to sponsor a league with such players in
it? Are we, as fans, prepared to
overlook the player’s off-field screw-ups if they produce sufficiently
impressive results on the field? Is the
league’s potentially most explosive QB, running back, or wide receiver
currently sitting on death row or in a maximum security prison as we speak? Ironically, the Oakland Raiders are one of
the cleaner teams in the league, but all teams seem to have some misbehaving
athletes. And this problem occurs in
other professional sports as well.
Look at
Michael Vick. In 2007 his Falcons career took a nosedive in
his dogfight scandal, he served 21 months in prison. Yet he served his time, reformed, and is back
in the NFL today.
If you
indefinitely suspend any player facing any sort of criminal charges, even if
they remain out on bail or can resolve the charges without interfering with
their availability to play for the team (e.g. plead the case down to a lesser
charge, suspended jail sentence, probation, etc), that will substantially
deplete the available personnel in the NFL.
At any given point, SOME NFL player has a criminal charge pending
against him. DUI seems to be the most
common, plus drug-related charges, or Plaxico Burress’ gun-related
incident.
And
consider this. At the risk of sounding
overly complacent or “boys will be boys”, this is a rough, full contact
sport. A certain aggressive spirit is
necessary to play the game. If we winnow
out all the players with any aggressive impulses, we might compromise the
intensity of the game. Imagine an NFL
where 100% of the players are meek angels with absolutely clean criminal
records. A whole load of Tim Tebows. That may not hurt at the QB position – most
of them, aside from Big Ben, seem to behave themselves – but the rest of the
positions will suffer to some extent. Are
the fans somewhat inconsistent on this:
we want a good game, but we aren’t willing to tolerate the type of
players necessarily to give us that game, vs. “yeah, he’s a punk, but he’s OUR
punk!”?
Before
we go any further, let me clarify one issue.
Not even Adrian Peterson’s defenders argue that he should be immune to
criminal prosecution simply because he’s such a great running back. To my knowledge, no one is claiming that
professional athletes should be held to a lesser standard, let alone granted
immunity. If an ordinary person would be
released on bail, merit probation, a first offender program, or a suspended
sentence – fairly common accommodations which keep the defendant out of jail –
then there’s no reason why a professional athlete shouldn’t deserve the same
clemency.
However,
if the offense took place in the town where the athlete plays, common sense
indicates that a local prosecutor who refused to let a player go out on bail,
jeopardizing his team’s chances for that season, might face some challenges
when re-election came up. Then again,
the same overwhelming fan reaction to “dump him NOW!” should protect the local
DA from political repercussions. If I
had to place bets on the Atlantic County, NJ prosecutor’s NFL allegiance, I’d
say he’s in Eagles territory, while the Ravens are in a completely different
conference. I’m curious as to whether a
Minnesota prosecutor would handle Peterson’s case differently than the Texas
guy running the show now, or a prosecutor in Green Bay, Detroit or Chicago, for
that matter. Here’s some free legal
advice to NFL players (worth what you pay for it, right?): be VERY careful what
you do when you’re in enemy territory.
Anyhow.
In all
fairness, there are plenty of running backs who don’t switch their kids or
punch their wives. Maybe we should
“clean house” once and for all – and see what happens. Try a zero tolerance policy, suspend ALL
these players for this season, and see what happens.
With
morbid curiosity, of course.
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