Close to 9 months after Aaron Hernandez's name first surfaced in connection with the murder of Odin Lloyd, the list of NFL players who have been arrested in the past few years continues to grow. The most recent addition to that list involved a knockout punch, a TMZ video, a fiancé and a struggling running back who plays for the Baltimore Ravens.
For those who do not have not heard, that above intro may be a little confusing so I will state the focus of this article plainly. Earlier this week, Ray Rice was arrested by Atlantic City police and pegged with an alleged assault of his fiancée. Within just a few hours of that arrest, that pesky web page called TMZ had dug up a security film that showed Rice dragged his limp companion out of an elevator. The film also showed, a security guard approaching and detaining Rice.
So now what.
Rice will likely be charged with assault and if so will also be handed close to a year or even more of jail time. Once he comes back the NFL might also impose some justice of their own by either fining or suspending Rice for even longer. But what we also know is that Ray Rice who finished this season aged just 27 will return to the NFL and will, like far too many NFL criminals earn many more millions in contract money once he does so.
This has become a pattern in the NFL and frankly, this particular fan is beginning to fell disgusted at what has happened. Within the house I live in, it has been strongly instilled in me that someone who makes as much money as these players do should show they deserve it by not only playing with a drive built around selflessness and complete devotion but more importantly living as moral citizens off the field. While definition on what the latter part of that really may differ (one example of this was whether or not David Ortiz' This is Our City speech was justified), what there is no argument on is that being a moral citizen at the very minimum means abiding by straightforward laws such as "don't kill anyone" or "don't punch anyone".
Is that too hard.
Apparently yes.
Between the Aaron Hernandez case last year, Ray Lewis roughly 10 years before that, OJ Simpson even earlier and then Deon Sanders around the same time, football players cannot seem to keep their hands to themselves and are going around killing each-other at a rate much higher than most other people making 10 million dollars a year.
But this is a story that has already been told. We have already been read the stats on how often these players get arrested. So to make sure that this arrest, this attack frankly is not something that fades away and becomes something someone Ray Lewis might someday erase from his past, I want to use this as a jumping off point not only to call out the actions of Ray Lewis but also to expose the true absurdity of the beliefs harbored by many within the NFL.
When Michael Sam came out as being gay earlier this month, the shock-waves of his announcement spread quickly. While Jason Collins was the first active player to come out as gay last summer, the timing of Sam's announcement put the NFL in an interesting position. In this league where there had already been little whispers of players not being drafted because of their sexual orientation that had filtered through the headlines, the thought of such a promising player coming through the draft was interesting. But it was what happened next, what happened in the ensuing media storm invoked by hundreds of reporters looking to get the top story turned up countless supportive and a few aggravating quotes.
In this case it was those that aggravated the reader that drew the strongest reactions.
"The question you will ask yourself, knowing your team, is, ‘How will drafting him affect your locker room?'" an unidentified GM said to the MMQB's Peter King "And I am sorry to say where we are at this point in time, I think it’s going to affect most locker rooms. A lot of guys will be uncomfortable. Ten years from now, fine. But today, I think being openly gay is a factor in the locker room.”
On this blog alone, I took serious offence to that quote and ripped it apart in my post on the subject.
Additionally, just a few days before Michael Sam came out, Saints linebacker, Johnathan Vilma said to the Huffington Post said that he "think[s] that he [a gay football player] would not be accepted as much as we think he would be accepted. I don't want people to just naturally assume, like, 'Oh, we're all homophobic.' That's really not the case. Imagine if he's the guy next to me and, you know, I get dressed, naked, taking a shower, the whole nine, and it just so happens he looks at me. How am I supposed to respond?"
Well for one a quote like that makes it seem like a gay man working in the professional setting that an NFL lockeroom is, lacks the personal restraint of anyone else and that is simply not true. But also when you expand the subject of that quote out into the whole idea of locker room security and comfort, one who has followed the league at any point in its existence has watched the violent patterns of many of players.
While I guarantee you that Michael Sam would never cause a problem in a lockerroom because of anything regarding his sexual orientation, guys like Richie Incognito and all those participate in hazing of rookies will and already have caused problems. More so, I personally would like to ask Johnathan Vilma, how would you feel if you were showering next Ray Lewis and he stabbed you, how would you feel if you were showering next to Ray Rice and he knocked you out cold?
Most people would rather deal with the nonexistent chance of Michael Sam looking at them than someone turning around and physically harming them.
The conclusion most people would draw from that is that the NFL has bigger problems than having a gay man in their locker room. The alleged Ray Rice assault is proof of that.
All and all, it is time for the NFL to tackle this thing head on (no pun intended). They need to suspended Ray Rice for a period of time and derails his career to an honest extent that his actions warrant and as for Michael Sam, the NFL's players coaches and GM's just need to give it up. There will be a gay man in the NFL before long and even if it is not Michael Sam it will be someone else.
It is time for these players to just deal with that an focus more on the fact that the player next to them may have killed, punched or otherwise harmed another human being.
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