As the draft approaches and players’ draft stock rises and falls (measured in millions of dollars in potential first contracts) character issues have become more and more important in football. Character issues have even bigger implications than just players’ draft position though. The Bills have had to deal with character issues recently with incidents involving Marshawn Lynch, Dante Whitner, and Ko Simpson.
When Roger Goodell took office as commissioner of the NFL and started talking about how character issues would become stressed and players would be held to a higher standard I thought this might be a good thing. This higher standard was to be enforced with suspensions for misconduct. Since then though, I have done a 180 on this issue.
I’m not exactly sure what it was that made me change my mind. It could have been anything from Adam Jones, to Mike Vick, to Tank Johnson, to Cedric Benson, to the unfortunate shootings that have happened (Collier, Taylor, and Williams), to Plax shooting himself. I guess what it comes down to for me is… why football players?
Let’s think for a second what it would be like if others were suspended without pay from their positions were they to misbehave. You can apply this to whatever realm you want, it’s plain not fair. What if musicians were held to this same standard? When was the last time that you heard that a band’s tour was canceled because one of the band members got into an altercation outside of a strip club? When was the last time that a Hollywood actor was suspended from filming a blockbuster (i.e. Hugh Grant, Robert Downey Jr., Lindsay Lohan, etc.)?
It’s almost like we forget what these guys are doing out on a football field. Think in your head about Troy Polamalu literally flying through the air, head first at a quarterback. Players in the NFL get paid lots of money to play a very violent sport. Granted, lots of players are great human beings, serving and giving back to their communities, much like Polamalu. But, why are they held to such a higher standard than other sports figures in popular culture. When did the NFL become the Disney Channel?
Isn’t the reason that we have a legal system in this country to punish people if they break the law? Why do these players deserve to be punished a second time for these infractions? I’ve heard the argument it’s because football players are role models, which is true. But movie stars, rock stars, and baseball players are role models too, how come they don’t face the same consequences for their “bad” behavior? Maybe you think it’s because football players make so much money, in which case read the above sentence again and insert role models with big money makers.
This isn’t to say that I’m against rules and that the NFL should be a gladiatorial free-for-all. I guess I just see so many other ways to enforce “rules” and make the NFL safer, more exciting, and more realistic league. For example, by enforcing steroid use to the same level that the cycling world has.
This post is dedicated to Drewbins. You're my boy Blue, I mean Drew!
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Baseball players rarely get the treatment they deserve... think about it, when the batter charges the mound and sparks a dugout-clearing brawl, it's accepted as a storied part of the game's past. Hell, we all laughed when Pedro Martinez tossed an ancient Don Zimmer through the air five years back. A lot of us forget that many of these football stars with character issues come from a very rough background, and unlike baseball (where players are groomed for many years in the minors before entering the league as rookies) some of these young kids are asked to take on loads of responsibility.. Some of them handle it well (Adrian Peterson), some of them not so much (Marshawn Lynch). Don't forget that young black men often grow up without father figures -- so is it really fair to penalize them further for their screw-ups? Nice post Timmy..
ReplyDeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up some great points. I totally forgot to include the accepted violence in other sports. If there were bench clearing brawls in football like there are in baseball the consequences would be entirely different. You would see entire teams suspended in the NFL. Also, how about hockey? Can you imagine if offensive and defensive linemen fought as they do in hockey? There would be suspensions, there would probably be charges brought against the players etc.
I didn't mean for race to come up as an issue in this piece, but it's worth noting. How are two hockey (a league dominated by white players) players getting into a fight on the ice different from the fights that Adam Jones, and Donte Whitner have been involved in?
I'm not ready to blame the problems that NFL players have had recently entirely on the shoulders of their absent fathers. However, you do bring up another good point about grooming in other leagues. Many times in the NFL, especially with regards to the draft, huge sums of money (again, in the millions) are handed out to guys that might have been living in the dorms last year. I'm not sure that anyone should expect angelic behavior from someone that has been recently exposed to lots of money and fame. Perhaps instead of these heavy handed suspensions, the NFL (if it expects real results) should do a better job of counseling and mentoring rookies into what life will be like and what they can expect in their new lives as NFL players.