The well oiled Captialistic machine seeks to entertain and celebrate success in play and financial gain It is within this culture of glory and cash that many players and owners find mutual success and tension (see the CBA negotiations). I already mentioned how teams can arbitrarily terminate an agreed upon "contract" that they also committed to but that rarely is raised as somehow problematic. Conversely, a player who excells and out performs a time-sensitive contract should not expect some type of reward? The incentives could be a way around this but the contract should be binding on BOTH parties if tension is to be eliminated.
In the case of TO, he was disciplined within the context of the NFL rules that are in place but many times those associated with or guilty of acts such as rape, lude sexual acts, suspicion of covering up murder, spousal abuse and repeated drug abuse are somehow given a slap on the wrist for such henious and detestable "civil" violations. Occassionally, the NFL addresses the matters but it is not with regularity on some of these matters. I do think TO went way too far and should of handled his dispute in a more appropriate manner to be sure but certainly there are much greater offenses that occur that do not receive the same attention that they should accordingly.
The NFL players, owners and organizations should determine not only general but specific "ethical" standards with regard to business operations, contract stipulations and owner/player relations to avoid the TO type episodes. The reason we are having this discussion is precisely because these matters need to be but have not been properly addressed substantially speaking and this leads to tensions often in contractual discussions.
I certainly agree with your point if you define "ethical behavior" in relationship to NFL community standards but you do realize your qualification of the context "cutthroat world" somewhat undermines your appeal to "ethical behavior" to a degree. It is a different world than our civil soceity to a large degree where many Billionares and Millionares abound with much ego and arrogance of players, agents, owners and coaches. There are some NFL community standards in place but I would venture to say they need to be further defined, implemented to ALL parties and furthermore actually practiced. These standards apply to not just a single player but to all players, agents, owners, coaches and officials without preference or difference.
