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The N.F.L. Never Feeling Liable
There are many things in this life that baffle me and I try to take comfort in the fact that I will probably never know the answer or the truth behind many of life’s great mysteries.
But there are no life mysteries here in the Cheap Seats. Just simple questions without logical answers, like why it costs me more to park at a game ($10) than to actually watch the game from my upper-deck seat($7)?…Does that mean that I’d have a better view from my car because it costs me more?
But there is one question, above all, that is beyond me.
Why do professional athletes consistently take part in acts of pure idiocy?
Let me clarify. Why are players in the National Football League constantly running into trouble with the law?
I ran across a site that lists all of the arrests and citations accrued by NFL players since the year 2000. What I found shocked me.
According to http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/nfl/arrests.html various NFL players have been involved with 404 documented run-ins with the police in the past eight years.
So if my math is right that’s about what--50 players a year. And let’s define “year” here because I mean you figure NFL players should technically be too busy and tied up with the NFL season from August until January to do anything wrong, right. So an technically an NFL player’s year/off-season is really six months long.
Let’s take a look at some of these arrests we’re talking about here…
11/20/2001 Damon Moore, Safety, Philadelphia Eagles. Charged with abandoning puppy at soccer field.
7/8/2002 Najeh Davenport, Running back, Green Bay Packers. Arrested in Florida after a woman told police he had broke into her university dormitory room and defecated in a closet.
5/31/2003 Michael Pittman, Running back, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Charged with aggravated assault after police said he used his Hummer to ram a car carrying his wife, 2-year-old son and a babysitter.
3/1/2005 Dwight Smith, Safety, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Arrested and charged with pulling a pellet gun on two fans who approached his car while he waited in line at a McDonald's window.
6/23/2005 Quintin Williams, Safety, Miami Dolphins. Arrested on DUI and drag-racing charges. He was clocked driving 111m.p.h. near the Dolphins practice facility, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
7/15/2005 Rod Coleman, Defensive Tackle, Atlanta Falcons. Arrested for misdemeanor disorderly conduct during a traffic stop in DeKalb, Ga. Coleman allegedly cursed at an officer and asked, ``Do you know who I am?!''
12/30/2005 Terry Glenn, Wide Receiver, Dallas Cowboys. Cited for public intoxication after urinating outside Jack In The Box restaurant.
3/26/2006 Dhani Jones, Linebacker, Philadelphia Eagles. Charged with failure to obey a lawful command -- a misdemeanor -- after he allegedly refused to stop dancing outside a South Beach club.
12/18/2006 Terrance Kiel, Safety, San Diego Chargers. Cited by police for public urination outside a downtown club.
4/15/2007 Cedric Griffin, Cornerback, Minnesota Vikings. Arrested on disorderly conduct charge in Minneapolis after allegedly being thrown out of nightclub for having his pants sag too low.
5/10/2007 Richard Seigler, Linebacker, Pittsburgh Steelers. Arrested on charges he ran a prostitution ring in Las Vegas, three felony counts.
8/27/2007 Lance Briggs, Linebacker, Chicago Bears. Charged with leaving the scene of an accident after crashing his 2007 Lamborghini into pole and leaving it on side of Chicago expressway.
11/3/2007 Richard Collier, Offensive Tackle, Jacksonville Jaguars. Charged with DUI after being found asleep behind wheel at McDonald's drive-thru window.
2/1/2008 Adrian Awasom, Defensive End, New York Giants. Arrested on a DUI charge in Phoenix just two days before his team was to play in the Super Bowl.
2/5/2008 Willie Andrews, Cornerback, New England Patriots. Charged with possession of a half-pound of marijuana, with intent to distribute
4/26/2008 Kalvin Pearson, Safety, Detroit Lions. Arrested, charged with felony aggravated battery on a pregnant woman and domestic battery by strangulation in Florida.
Those are a few of the numerous documentations of NFL players getting into trouble with the law.
All of the crimes fall on a sliding scale of stupidity, but the question still remains…Why?
Whether it’s drug charges, DUI’s, DWI’s, assault, battery, weapons possession, manslaughter, disturbing the peace, public intoxication, fraudulent checks and charges, robbery and various other misdemeanors and felonies you really have to ask yourself WHY.
Why are these players getting themselves caught up in all of this? Do they have any common sense? Do they feel like the law doesn’t apply to them? I just don’t get what could motivate them to do these things. I mean we’re talking about guys who are making millions of dollars and making really poor decisions. I just don’t get it.
And it’s not just the guys in the NFL. It’s athletes in every sport. But this is documented proof here, and it really jumps off the page at you. It is outrageous. You really have to ask yourself what goes on in the mind and what the rationale of these players is.
The funny thing is that a lot of these players are repeat offenders and many of their cases are dropped, acquitted, or they are let off with minor punishments. And this is after having committed crimes that would ruin the lives of normal, everyday citizens.
So next time I find myself wanting to drive under the influence, start a brawl outside a local nightclub, speed around with drugs in my car, or bring guns to the airport I’ll just have to think twice and remember that I’m not in the NFL.
- David
I really think you're making a mountain out of a molehill with this blog. Or at least you could have picked a more damning sport to single out.
First thing I take issue with is that you say football off-season is 6 months long ... not at all. The regular season goes from September - January/February. Which is about 6 months. But when you consider that OTA's, Minicamps, Training Camp and Preseason go from late-March/April till August, with a month break in-between, football players only really take off for about 1 month. So that's one thing I wanted to point out.
Regardless, you say that about 50 players a year have been involved with some sort of mischievous activity. Let's actually break that number down. There are 53 men on an NFL roster for regular season, which translates to 1,696 players in the NFL as a whole. That means that roughly 3% of the NFL's population has been involved with some sort of illegal activity. Now, let's take it a step further. An NFL roster is 53 men, but that's only for the regular season. Minicamps - Preseason teams can have roughly double that number of players. So that means the percentages pretty much drop to about 1.5% of the NFL population having run-ins with the law.
Also look at some of those charges you posted, some of them are absolutely ludicrous. Dancing outside a club? I didn't know that was illegal. How many times have you danced outside a club? I know I have. Pissing outside? I know it's illegal, but who hasn't hit up a bar gotten drunk and not taken a whiz outside? Again, I know I have. So are their actions really THAT bad ... or are you sensationalizing them a tad because they are in the NFL?
Aside from that, there are stupid people everywhere. There are dumb guys who commit all of these crimes on a regular basis, and aren't in the NFL, or any pro-sport outlet in general. So what makes these guys any different, after-all they are human. Just because you're a pro-sport player doesn't mean you don't make some dumb decisions. Especially when you consider that most of these guys are just getting out of college, where you party a ton, and are now making more money than they could have ever conceived of. They are bound to be a bit immature.
So I think that some of your observations are blown out of proportion, in the grand scheme of things.
Posted by B_Joe_Carter
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