Looking for a more effective way to keep players out of the courtroom, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is expected this week to announce new strategies and more severe penalties for players that land in trouble with the law.
According to the Washington Post, 41 NFL players were arrested in the 2006 calendar year for charges that range from assault to reckless driving to carrying a concealed weapon. For nearly half of the cases, some or all of the charges were dropped.
What I'm surprised about is the fact that Goodell, along with owners, general managers, and coaches (almost all of whom were players themselves) that attended these owner's meetings with Goodell believe aggressiveness and violent temperament to be a switch that can be turned on and off. "Sinner on the gridiron," they think. "Saint off of it."
"One incident is too many in my book," Goodell said at the owners meeting in Phoenix.
He was also quoted as saying that the NFL and its players were held to a higher standard. A different standard. That goes without saying. These are men that treat broken fingers like we treat paper cuts. These are men that pop shoulders into place like we pop our knuckles. These are men that risk physical and mental health for the most popular sport in America.
There have been reports of players being forced to practice with concussions. One wide receiver in the late-'90s played an entire year while blind in one eye. Wear an eye patch and try to play catch with your kid this afternoon and see how long you last.
We as a country have created this expectation and standard for NFL players to be men of complete aggression and reckless abandon (what else would you call a gunner on a punt coverage?) and to have a threshold of pain 10 times that of the men and women that write and read about them in the sports page.
We have trained these men to suppress fear and deal with unimaginable pain.
Why then are we so surprised when they forget that the rest of us aren't on their level? Why are we so shocked when one of them lashes out off the field?
Looking over the Washington Post report and the list of charges brought before NFL players last year, I see only a handful that wouldn't translate wonderfully on the football field.
Assault on a Tuesday afternoon? Get in there and rip the quarterback's head off on Sunday, Connor!
Reckless driving on a Thursday night? Cover that kickoff on Sunday, Johnson!
Disorderly conduct on Monday evening? I want some disruption in the pocket on Sunday or you're cut, Curtiss!
Resisting arrest on Friday? Never quit, never surrender, elude that safety on Sunday, Taylor!
I'm not trying to say that the actions of a few dozen football players should be pardoned. I'm just trying to say that we should look at their actions in a different light. Since their preteens, these men are the cream of the crop of a generation of football players that are told to never quit, to fight back, and to handle their problems with physical aggression. I don't think we should cut them any slack judicially, but I do think we should cut them a little slack judgmentally.
I am in total agreement with Goodell on a lot of things. I think he can take us out of this current CBA and bring some unity between the owners and player's unions. I think going to London is a wonderful idea and I hope to bring Canada and Europe into the NFL family in the next 15 years.
I also think I'd be quite the hypocrite to cheer for aggressiveness on Sundays and look my nose down on that same aggression Monday through Saturday.
Unless, of course, "Monday Night Football" is on.
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