I'm out of hibernation long enough to declare I'm tired of hearing about Baltimore Ravens running back and wife beater Ray Rice. I think the media has pretty much run his story into the ground.
I lost interest years ago in the National Football League primarily because of the unsavory character of many of its players. I refer to the NFL only semi-tongue-in-cheek as the National Felon League. Too many are just thugs, plain and simple. For years they have been allowed to do pretty much whatever they wanted....no one ever says "no" to them. They say "jump", the NFL asks "how high?"
And when they do run afoul of the law, high-powered lawyers are always there to negotiate a hand slap for them. Their DUI arrests have become almost daily occurrences, then throw in your garden variety spousal abuse, sexual molesting, drug possession, dog fighting, and even an occasional murder, and you have a pretty sleazy bunch. Enough!
It isn't hard to stay out of jail. I've managed to do it for 64 years. If threatened with the loss of their livelihood, the job that's the source of their idoltry, I'll bet they could do it, too. Start booting these bums out of the game and replace them with some of the tens-of-thousands of college players who would LOVE to play in the NFL.
I'll bet the players would then act like a bunch of choir boys. And if they didn't clean up their act, well, lets just say there would be plenty of new day laborers available to spread concrete.
Fire NFL Commish Rodger Goodell....no. Think about it. All eyes are on him. If another incident is brought to him, do you think he'll ever again mete out a hand slap and a wink? I suspect he'll hammer 'em hard....show 'em the door. He'll want to show us all that he has a pair.
But for any of this to happen WE, the fans (well, YOU the fans), are going to have to speak up. Show 'em some empty stadium seats, some untapped beer kegs at their concession stands, and maybe a few million unsold, overpriced jerseys and bobble head dolls. Then it will be the OWNERS pocketbooks that are affected, and they can no doubt clean things up fast if they want.
I can't imagine how the NFL Players Association could defend their sleazy members against a movement to clean the game up. That would be like defending Charles Manson or some child molester creep. Good luck with that!
Next, if the NCAA and the individual universities AND THEIR BOOSTERS will insist that college football "employ" only people who can behave like decent human beings, too, then we'll be on our way back to a great game exemplified by civility on and off the field. (To their credit, there are a number of college coaches who will bench or even revoke scholarships from players who commit serious indiscretions, even if they're starters. Florida State excluded.)
It CAN happen.
S
