THE WORST OF FOOTBALL WILL NEVER DESTROY THE BEST OF FOOTBALL

For the past few weeks it has been hard to be an NFL Fan. Ray Rice beating his wife, Adrian Peterson whooping his kids, and the media demanding explanations from Roger Goodell as if he was the President of the United States, rather than merely the Commissioner of a pro sports league. It almost got to the point where you felt, as a fan, that you had to owe some type of explanation to gathering storm of media pundits and football critics as to why we remained as fans f despite the recent problems.
          I have several reasons why I never have wavered from my love for the game and never will. First off, if you take Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, Adrian Peterson and Jonathan Dwyer (The NFL's most recent and serious miscreants) that's 4 players. Four players out of a league of 1696. That is one quarter of one per cent of the players in the NFL. One quarter of one percent.
          In the rest of the world, if 99.75 % of your workforce obeys the law, does there job well, and is among the 1696 best in the world at what they do, you don't hear anything but praise. But the public holds the NFL to a higher standard than the rest of the business world, and any standard that they would ever allow for themselves. Would you expect to be fired from your job for just being accused of a crime unrelated to your job? I didn't think so.
          But I digress. Today was Sunday, and to a pro football fan it was spectacular. And if you are a Seahawk Fan like myself, it was glorious. When Marshawn Lynch launched himself across the goal line in overtime to give the Seahawks a 26-20 overtime victory over the Broncos in a classic rematch of last years Super Bowl it reminded all fans of why we love the game; because it has the ability to make us explode with emotion, to jump in the air and scream at the television as if the players can hear us.
          Today was full of these moments; the Eagles besting the Redskins in a shootout in Philly, the Browns and Ravens battling each other to the final seconds, and Dallas proving the naysayers wrong by mounting a huge comeback to bring their record to 2-1.
          Today, for about six hours; I didn't have a mortgage, all of my bills were paid, I wasn't pining for  a raise, and any problems that I woke up with this morning disappeared for the day.
          The cynical ones out there will come back that now all of things are back, that football was only a brief distraction from reality, it cannot fix our everyday problems.
          I agree. I'm the one that will pay that mortgage, settle my bills, and get that raise, but if I can get a brief vacation from the world, if only for one afternoon a week for about five months a year, I am a happy guy. I am more than that, I am thrilled. Name another activity that you can do as an adult that makes you jump up and scream for joy like a child. Football is an escape from society, and people need to stop expecting it's players to be better than the average citizen. Because I have news for you, as wonderful as life is, there are bad people and horrible crimes that occur every day, get used to it.
          The game isn't perfect, but neither is society, and neither are you or I. We need to stop expecting football, or any sport or mode of entertainment, to meet higher standards than we would ever place on ourselves.
          Because well over 99.75 % of the time, football is everything it needs to be, a wonderful distraction to our everyday lives. And that is why it is here to stay.
       

WHY DO PEOPLE LOVE CALLING FOR OTHERS TO BE FIRED WHEN THEY BREAK THE LAW?

I spent the first four and a half years of my legal career as a prosecutor. During that time frame, I had to prosecute various cases which were considered "victim sensitive." Crimes like assault, robbery, burglary, sexual assault, and vehicular manslaughter. In those cases, we were trained to always keep the victim, or family of the victim if they had died, informed throughout the case, and to always interview them in person to find out what their wishes were with regard to the defendant and his or her punishment.
          They didn't completely control the case. For instance, if you had an assault charge and had lousy evidence with regard to something like intent, you may reduce the charge even if the victim wanted to see the defendant put away for a year. The defendant's background, case precedent, and most of all, your available evidence controlled the case, but you had to do your best to help the victim get what they felt would be a just result.
          Some wanted to see the defendant locked up, others were fine if they just got some type of counseling, some just wanted an apology and still others just wanted their property back if it was a theft, there was no universal answer.
          But here is one thing they never asked for; Mr. Prosecutor, I want them to be fired and banned for life from their chosen profession.
         Now, if a person committed a crime that was linked with their occupation; let's say if a stockbroker stole from his clients, or if a dentist sexually abused a patient, then we would seek out some type of sanction that either suspended their employment, or eliminated it for life, and that, in my opinion makes sense.
          But over the past week, as the Ray Rice case has now dragged on, members of the media, the general public, and even some elected officials, have called for everyone from Rice, Roger Goodell, and any NFL player that ever commits an act of domestic violence in the future to lose their job and never be allowed to have it again.
          Let me be clear, Rice committed a horrific act of violence and his team had every right to terminate his contract. I also agree that unions can collectively bargain for certain penalties if their members break the law, and certain state licenses can be taken away from you if you are convicted of a felony.
          These are all acceptable and common sanctions that can occur, and that employers have initiated against their employees for years. But what is new, and what I also think is dangerous is the reflexive action that people now feel the need to demand that when a person commits a crime, that in addition to being prosecuted by the state, they should be fired from employment as well. Even when the crime is completely unrelated to their job.
          How did this become such a popular sentiment? Why do people completely unaffected by the crime of another person, feel the need to scream for the defendant's job to be taken away from them just because they committed a crime?
          Is it because people aren't satisfied with the punishments that are doled out by the courts? Rice's deal, which will result in no jail time and a clean record, without question has angered a large segment of the public who believe that if they were put in similar circumstances, they would be facing jail time. Just as an aside, those people are wrong. The fact that Rice won't serve any jail time doesn't surprise me at all. I'm not saying it is right, but it is not a shocker to anyone that has either prosecuted or defended a domestic violence case when the victim expresses the type of sentiment that has come from Rice's wife, and where a defendant has a spotless record, as Rice has.
          One thing that drives it is clearly some sort of envy. Because the more public the figure, the richer the defendant, the more you here the screed of "He should be fired for this!"
          Are you telling me that the unrelenting campaign by the bulk of the sports media to banish Roger Goodell from pro football for life isn't due, in some part, to the fact that he made 44 million dollars last year?
          And you don't have members of Congress binding together to demand that auto mechanics should be subjected to a zero tolerance rule when it comes to convictions of domestic violence related crimes. Right now it is just for NFL players.
         By the way, whenever you hear the words "zero tolerance," you should worry. When you eliminate discretion and flexibility in punishments, you get ridiculous, and at times, unjust results.
          You know those news stories you hear about 1st graders getting suspended for sexual harassment because they kissed a classmate on the cheek? That comes from zero tolerance policies. They are the fall back decision for politicians and administrators that want to appear tough on a particular issue, and since they require no thought to deliver, you get stupid results.
          It is the job of the district attorneys to prosecute criminals, and for the courts to ensure that justice is served in criminal cases. When you read any state's penal code, and you look at the punishments available for certain offenses, you will not see "Firing from their job," or "Banishment form the defendant's chosen field of work" as available sanctions. Nor should they be.
          The most ridiculous part of this new idea, if you can call it that, is that many of the same people; whether they are politicians, media members, or the faceless trolls on twitter, that believe in firing people who get charged with certain crimes; they are the same people that scream that the drug laws are too harsh, or that this country incarcerates too many of its citizens, and that rehabilitation of prisoners is a joke because no companies will hire them out of prison. So they want jobs for the people that get sent to prison when they commit a crime like robbery or burglary to support a drug habit, but they want you to fire other people when they commit domestic abuse and the state elects to give them counseling rather than decide to send them to the jails they decry. It is mindless hypocrisy of the highest order.
          Whether or not a defendant keeps their job, or is allowed to work in their field should be determined by the employers who hire them. It will set a dangerous precedent if we allow Congress, the media, or the screaming on-line mobs on Twitter to determine who gets to keep their job and who gets fired after committing a crime.

A PLAYER'S INJURIES SHOULD NEVER BE A PUNCHLINE

I am new to the writing game, and aside from a few checks from he generous Clay Travis over at Outkick the Coverage, nobody has ever felt the need to pay me for my services. By the way, I owe my entire writing career -if you can call it that- to Mr. Travis, the first guy who ever published one of my stories on his website and continues to do so today so Thank You Buddy.
          Back to my point, although I may be stepping on the toes of people that are far more accomplished in this field, there is something that some sports writers, particularly football writers do that drives me crazy. They question the toughness of players who live through pain on a daily basis and worse yet, as Peter King did this week, they use a player's propensity to get hurt as an opportunity for a snarky punch line.
          Do they have a right to do this? Of course. But do I have an equal right to call them out for being wrong for doing so? Absolutely.
         I enjoy King's work as a writer, even when he delves into the judgmental prose that I am sure drives pro athletes insane. "You're going to have to make better throws than that to play quarterback in this league Mr. Manziel!"
         Stuff like that.
         For the record that is not a direct quote form King but trust me, it isn't far off from others he has made in the past.
          Look, I understand that any type of journalism that covers a field of entertainment, whether it be movies, sports, or literature, is going to be dominated by a group of writers critiquing the exploits of men and woman who have reached the very pinnacle of a field that they likely failed in -I am convinced that every movie writer is a failed director, every, one. Great journalism wouldn't exist if we only let those who have thrived in a particular field to write about it, I get that.
          King never came across that way, I should add. I never read his stuff and got the feeling that this is just some failed athlete. In fact, it is the opposite, he has always seemed like a guy that has always wanted to be a writer, and his resume proves that.
          But even if they aren't truly jealous, as many pro athletes believe, there is a line that many sports writers cross, when legitimate criticism devolves into snarky, arrogant barbs that just make me cringe.
          Which brings me back to King. This week, in his Monday column, he listed the recent injury history of former Bills and Chiefs tight end Tony Moeaki. King wrote: "Tight end Tony Moeaki IR Kansas City, 2011. IR in Kansas City 2013.Waived in an injury settlement with Kansas City 2013. IR in Buffalo 2014, I sense a trend."

          I know that this was a short "throw in" line of a 15 page article on the NFL, but it is the "I sense a trend," that aggravates the hell out of me.
          First of all, Moeaki's career could be over, and as far as I know, he never said a cross word about King. Is it really necessary to take an awful moment in his kid's life and try to make  a clever little joke about it?
          How about crediting him for coming back a number of times after sustaining serious injuries to his knee and shoulder. Moeaki also got hurt a bunch of times when he was at Iowa and still managed to work his way back to becoming a 3rd Round pick and eventually became a starter in KC after his first serious injury back in 2011.
         What trend are you sensing Peter? That football is a vicious, brutal game and some guys, sadly, will get hurt due to nothing more than just bad luck?
          Yes, Moeaki gets hurt a lot, but he has also come back, every, single, time. He could have walked away after he tore his knee up in 2011, but he came back. Then he hurt his shoulder, came back again. Do you have any idea how hard it is to Rehab a torn ACL, and then to get back to the level of being a Pro Tight End in the process?
          I am not saying that writers need to constantly praise athletes or place them on a pedestal, but what I am saying is that when they see a guy who is contantly getting hurt yet finds a way to come back every time, that it is something to admire, not to turn into a lame one liner like "I sense a trend."
          The daily aches that a healthy NFL player deals with are enough to keep the average office worker home and taking a sick day, laying in bed with some chicken soup and Advil to soothe his pain.
         If people read this and think, what right does a nobody blogger like Craig Hayes have to criticize the most popular football writer on the planet? Well, I guess that I am following King's lead; getting judgmental about he work of a person that is far more accomplished than I am.
          I sense a trend.
         
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