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[SIZE=+2]Mike Finger: Give NFL players credit for policing their own
[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]Web Posted: 03/30/2007 10:28 PM CDT
[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]
San Antonio Express-News[/SIZE]
Within a month, NFL players likely will be living under a new official code of conduct. If it all works out like some hope, there finally will be real, legitimate consequences for smacking a girlfriend, or lighting up a joint in a car, or making it rain dollar bills and bullets at strip clubs.
It's a long overdue crackdown, and the only people who ever had a chance of making it effective put it into motion:
The players themselves.
This is how it had to happen.
The best way to police a group of troublemakers — whether they're acting up in elementary school, breaking the law on the street corners or ruining the reputations of professional football players — is when their peers do the policing.
So it was no surprise that after a year in which an estimated 50 NFL players and coaches were arrested, with a few of them compiling rap sheets thicker than a Bill Belichick playbook, that the guys who weren't doing anything wrong eventually became fed up.
Earlier this offseason, representatives of the NFL Players Association pushed for a plan that included a "three-strikes-and-you're-out" provision. Under those suggested guidelines, if a player is arrested or gets into off-field trouble three times, he can expect to be suspended.
It doesn't matter if the offenders are convicted. The way the players see it, being in the wrong place at the wrong time three times is bad enough.
One of the representatives who pushed for the plan is new Cowboys safety Ken Hamlin, who knows a thing or two about the subject.
Hamlin was at a Seattle strip club in 2005 when he endured a beating that led to a fractured skull and a cerebral blood clot. One of the men allegedly involved in the brawl was shot to death later that night.
But it isn't just selfpreservation that is driving this push. More and more these days, NFL players are saying they feel the sting of guilt by association.
Whether it's Pacman Jones' alleged involvement in the death of a man at a Las Vegas strip club, the arrests of nine Cincinnati Bengals players in one year, or a Detroit Lions coach driving to a Wendy's pick-up window naked, there is a growing perception that everyone in the league is either dangerous or crazy.
And the good guys — the ones
who take care of their family, don't break the law and still make up a majority of the league, believe it or not — are sick of it.
Not so coincidentally, this is the same mind-set that eventually led Major League Baseball players to accept stricter penalties for steroid use. The innocent players' images were hurting, and worse, they were having to compete against guys who had an edge. And so they finally decided to enough was enough (even if they never figured out a way to combat the use of human growth hormone).
For too long in all professional sports, players' unions held onto an us-against-them mentality that only enabled the worst offenders. Now, they're beginning to see that holding themselves to a higher standard isn't necessarily a sign of weakness.
Instead, it's evidence of maturity and wisdom. You know, the kinds of things players actually want to be known for.
At the annual league meetings this week in Phoenix, commissioner Roger Goodell didn't unveil the new code of conduct, but it's expected to be enacted soon. The plan has overwhelming support from owners, coaches and players, and if it has the teeth the league says it does, it won't just be lip service.
And when the first player gets punished and wonders about all this new tough treatment? He'll know it came from the same place the best discipline always does.
From the people next to him.
mfinger@express-news.net
[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]Web Posted: 03/30/2007 10:28 PM CDT
[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]
San Antonio Express-News[/SIZE]
Within a month, NFL players likely will be living under a new official code of conduct. If it all works out like some hope, there finally will be real, legitimate consequences for smacking a girlfriend, or lighting up a joint in a car, or making it rain dollar bills and bullets at strip clubs.It's a long overdue crackdown, and the only people who ever had a chance of making it effective put it into motion:
The players themselves.
This is how it had to happen.
The best way to police a group of troublemakers — whether they're acting up in elementary school, breaking the law on the street corners or ruining the reputations of professional football players — is when their peers do the policing.
So it was no surprise that after a year in which an estimated 50 NFL players and coaches were arrested, with a few of them compiling rap sheets thicker than a Bill Belichick playbook, that the guys who weren't doing anything wrong eventually became fed up.
Earlier this offseason, representatives of the NFL Players Association pushed for a plan that included a "three-strikes-and-you're-out" provision. Under those suggested guidelines, if a player is arrested or gets into off-field trouble three times, he can expect to be suspended.
It doesn't matter if the offenders are convicted. The way the players see it, being in the wrong place at the wrong time three times is bad enough.
One of the representatives who pushed for the plan is new Cowboys safety Ken Hamlin, who knows a thing or two about the subject.
Hamlin was at a Seattle strip club in 2005 when he endured a beating that led to a fractured skull and a cerebral blood clot. One of the men allegedly involved in the brawl was shot to death later that night.
But it isn't just selfpreservation that is driving this push. More and more these days, NFL players are saying they feel the sting of guilt by association.
Whether it's Pacman Jones' alleged involvement in the death of a man at a Las Vegas strip club, the arrests of nine Cincinnati Bengals players in one year, or a Detroit Lions coach driving to a Wendy's pick-up window naked, there is a growing perception that everyone in the league is either dangerous or crazy.
And the good guys — the ones
who take care of their family, don't break the law and still make up a majority of the league, believe it or not — are sick of it.
Not so coincidentally, this is the same mind-set that eventually led Major League Baseball players to accept stricter penalties for steroid use. The innocent players' images were hurting, and worse, they were having to compete against guys who had an edge. And so they finally decided to enough was enough (even if they never figured out a way to combat the use of human growth hormone).
For too long in all professional sports, players' unions held onto an us-against-them mentality that only enabled the worst offenders. Now, they're beginning to see that holding themselves to a higher standard isn't necessarily a sign of weakness.
Instead, it's evidence of maturity and wisdom. You know, the kinds of things players actually want to be known for.
At the annual league meetings this week in Phoenix, commissioner Roger Goodell didn't unveil the new code of conduct, but it's expected to be enacted soon. The plan has overwhelming support from owners, coaches and players, and if it has the teeth the league says it does, it won't just be lip service.
And when the first player gets punished and wonders about all this new tough treatment? He'll know it came from the same place the best discipline always does.
From the people next to him.
mfinger@express-news.net
