Why the NFL needs to stop worrying about it’s off-the-field problems, and worrying more about more pressing issues– like the impending lockout, prepared to doom the 2011 season

JIM RUBERA
Special Contributor

(Rubera writes for The Spop, a great web site that delves into sports and pop culture)

Braylon Edwards used poor judgment. Not just with his facial hair, but with his choice to drive while intoxicated Tuesday. He broke the law and will face legal consequences. And I don’t think he should be suspended or fined.

He damaged his personal reputation as well as that of the franchise; both of which already have fragile, at best, images. And I don’t think he should be suspended or fined.

I am a New England resident and a huge Patriots fan. I hate the Jets and realize that they are a better team with Edwards than without him. And I don’t think he should be suspended or fined.

Same goes for Santonio Holmes, Adam Jones, and the like. Even Michael Vick.

I understand that there is a personal conduct policy. I’ve read it. Here’s a link to it. I just don’t agree with it. It uses words like “detrimental”, “integrity”, and “public confidence” among others. I don’t see why the NFL has the need for all this false integrity and confidence. An extremist would say that if you don’t regulate how the players behave, that eventually they will all be running around shooting people, doing drugs, and driving drunk. I have three responses to that.

1) So what? How does their irresponsibility affect the game, the profits, or the fan interest?

2) I’ve heard a similar argument about gay marriage. A person once told me that you can’t let two people of the same sex marry because if you step over the line now, eventually you won’t even know where the line began and it will be legal for men to marry animals and have children with their sisters. Dumbest thing I’ve ever heard for obvious reasons. Bigotry aside, just because you don’t regulate something doesn’t mean that the masses will stampede to take advantage of it.

3) It wouldn’t happen because people who shoot people, do drugs, and drive drunk get arrested and go to jail. The threat of legal repercussions is what keeps most people out of trouble, not the threat of missing a couple of football games.

The NFL is in the entertainment business. Entertainment. That’s what it’s called when people pay money to watch somebody do something. These are not CEOs of publicly traded companies who will lose investors and suffer stock losses if there is a scandal. The fans are the investors. They will always watch football and they don’t care if the players are bad guys or do stupid irresponsible things. Know how I know? Because athletes have been doing stupid irresponsible things for decades and people still watch. It’s entertainment. These players are not entrusted with our money or futures. These players are entrusted with amusing us and their paid handsomely for it.

Does the president of the Screen Actors Guild punish Mel Gibson for drunk driving or Tom Cruise for acting like an idiot? Does he tell them that they can’t make movies for a year of fine them because they’ve brought shame to the movie industry? What about music? Lady Gaga is a public embarrassment and disgrace and she’s the most successful act in the business. Is she banned from performing for six months? No. These people deal with the real world consequences whether it be a legal judgment, a public slandering, bad press, or just plain embarrassment. Then they reap the benefits of it in the entertainment world by capitalizing on the publicity.

Let there be no confusion. If somebody breaks the law, they should pay the price in the legal system. Athletes should not get preferential treatment from law enforcement or the courts. High profile offenders lately have been given the maximum sentence and that’s a good thing. It sets an example to other athletes as well as the rest of normal society. It says “if this celebrity can’t buy or weasel his way out of this crime then you sure can’t either, so don’t do it.” Bravo. But let it end there. The double jeopardy law says that you can’t be charged for the same crime twice. Let’s not let a person be punished for it twice.

It wouldn’t work out so well if the roles were reversed. By the letter of the law an assault occurs on every play of every game. Do the police come and arrest a linebacker after he’s been flagged for unnecessary roughness? No, because he’s served his sentence (15 yards) within the bounds of his environment and the rules that govern it.

The NFL takes itself too seriously. The fact that Roger Goodell spends so much time touting responsibility and integrity and still has a league littered with criminals is a blatant testament to how much time he’s wasting. It also shows how wrong he is about the need for such things. You could fill a cell block with notable NFL law breakers, yet football is the most popular sport in America. By far.

Looking up to sports figures as role models has become so cliche that it’s almost comical to think about these days. The majority of modern athletes, black and white, are vicious, ignorant, corruptible, and selfish. The days of a little boy in his footy pajamas going to bed under his poster of Johnny Unitas are long gone. Tom Brady has an illegitimate child and had his security force open fire on the paparazzi at his wedding for Christ’s sake.

“The Policy makes clear that NFL and club personnel must do more than simply avoid criminal behavior. We must conduct ourselves in a way that is ‘responsible, that promotes the values upon which the league is based, and is lawful’.” – Roger Goodell in a memo to owners earlier this year.

Ok, George Michael. You’re not the father figure of the league. These guys have their own fathers. And mothers. And coaches. And distant uncles that they know better than they know you. They have people they look up to and who have bore the burden of teaching them right from wrong for their whole lives. Some get it. Some don’t. But they can all play football and that’s why they’re in the NFL, not to be a role model. If they screw up off the field, some will answer to their family, some will answer to God, some will answer to the warden. But not to you Roger.

These guys don’t need life lessons handed down by you. For them, life lessons will come in the form of a gavel, a jail cell, a freak injury, a bullet, an empty bank account. It shouldn’t be your job to make sure they’re law abiding citizens. That’s the job of the police. You have more important things to worry about such as how much to fine players because they’re happy they scored a touchdown or for wearing the wrong color mouthpiece. Or, more seriously, dealing with a coach striking an official or stepping in to help avoid an owner lockout next year. You know, something that would do actual tangible damage to your league? Just stick to that. Stick to football related issues. You’re the NFL commissioner, not the police commissioner.

Photo: AP

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