IM666
Footballguy
Saw this come up on some news sites. I thought I would share it with the Shark Pool.
Link
Link
Line of Scrimmage: NFL Powerless Against Pacman Controversy
By Tony Moss, NFL Editor
Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - This isn't really about Don Imus.
Imus' piece of moral high ground and right to explain himself vanished the second he uttered the statement-posing-as-a-question, "What color is he?" in reference to Adam "Pacman" Jones on his radio program Monday morning.
Imus has been around long enough and has been involved in enough controversy to know that you can't pose a question in that manner. The very phrasing betrays the ideology shared by many within Imus' political persuasion, that undercurrent of racism and xenophobia masked very poorly beneath a surface platform of "family values," or some such nonsense.
But again, let's not make this about Imus, because doing so puts Jones in the very unbecoming role of victim.
Adam, or Pacman, or whatever you wish to call him, is not a victim, though he's handed that part out to many others in recent years.
Even before the February 2007 shooting incident in Las Vegas that left a club bouncer paralyzed following an altercation initiated by Jones, the current Dallas Cowboys cornerback knew how to attract a criminal complaint at least as well as he could defend a slot receiver.
In separate incidents, Jones allegedly spit in the faces of a couple of female barroom patrons, punched another unlucky lady, threw a haymaker at a police officer, and violated probation from a previous criminal incident that occurred while he was a student at West Virginia.
Oh, Jones also admitted to smoking some marijuana in his car and was pulled over for speeding in Nashville, but those developments look like mission work compared to some of the troubled 24-year-old's other transgressions.
His former team, the Tennessee Titans, finally saw enough, trading the No. 6 overall pick in the 2005 Draft to the Dallas Cowboys for the league equivalent of turnip futures (actually a fifth-round draft pick) in late March.
This much-publicized pattern of malfeasance has made Jones the current poster child for NFL thuggery, and whenever his name comes up, the question invariably arises in and around talk show nation...what is the NFL to do about its off-the-field problems?
Unfortunately for the league, it can't do much. With 32 teams, and roughly 60 players on each active roster, we're talking about a group of nearly 2,000 men, aged 22-to-35. It's unrealistic to expect that within any similarly-sized cross-section of the public - be it made up of whites, blacks, doctors, or sportswriters - 100 percent will be able to avoid the occasional tavern brawl or flirtation with an illegal substance.
Pro Baseball, Basketball and Hockey have all had their share of off-field problems as well, but since NFL roster sizes are more than twice those of any of the above sports, football is more likely to be stamped with the "epidemic" tag, and often unfairly.
Which is not to say the situation with NFL players like Jones and similarly troubled ex-Bengals receiver Chris Henry is no big deal, it's just that the league is in the impossible position of trying to un-ring a bell that was sounded long before these players were on its payroll.
The NFL can hold rookie symposiums in which Michael Irvin, wearing a Hall of Fame blazer and sporting three jewel-encrusted Super Bowl rings, tells a litany of horror stories about the perils of certain off-the-field associations. Ultimately, however, it is well beyond the league's reach to develop its players into responsible adults.
The post-high school years are supposed to be the time when a person learns to walk on their own as a grown-up, but within too many of the nation's top college football programs, such a transformation is never allowed to take place. It's stunning that so many NFL players (a vision of the sainted Warrick Dunn, a Florida State grad no less, just popped into my head) are actually able to develop into men in this environment. Classes hand-picked by athletic department-approved "advisers." Academic work at least partially performed, in many cases, by "tutors." Criminal transgressions covered up and brushed aside thanks to complicit local law enforcement in tandem with "friends of the program." General hand-holding when it comes to when and where to show up for the better part of five years. If they weren't football players, you would call these people losers. Instead, they're celebrated in the media and are the stars of the campus.
Very few of the players who come out of the nation's largest and most successful programs are ever truly encouraged to act as adults, so what would make them start once they get to the pros?
The multi-million dollar contracts at the next level are not a deterrent for bad behavior. They are validation of any and all behavior that came before the day of that first windfall.
You can heap the responsibility on the NFL for feeding the beast with these vast sums, but don't pretend that the NFL created the beast.
No, Jones is a man-child of his own making, and one who received plenty of help along his road to purgatory by the coaches, parents, teachers, and other people in positions of responsibility who reinforced his behavior by turning a blind eye to problems due to his substantial on-field talents.
There is a chance that Adam Jones has truly and finally seen the light at the age of 24, and that his troubling behavior will vanish much like his recently- jettisoned nickname.
But there's a better chance that it won't.
And there's a 100 percent chance that no matter how the Jones saga plays out, another wayward superstar is right behind him to make the same mistakes, no doubt stoking the fires of on-line and broadcast "chat."
In that case, just as it is with Jones, the league will be called upon to take a long look at itself and to precipitate some change.
Unfortunately, this particular game is one in which even the mighty National Football League is hopelessly overmatched.
06/24 13:17:15 ET
File this article under "non sequitir". Author is using the situation for his own purposes.
I do like the point the article makes about the problem being the poor influence of many people.Athletes need to understand they are at risk because of it.Athletes need to take personal responsibility for who they become.Perhaps :gasp:, more college oversight, control, penalties and education to give athletes a better chance to become better people.
