Nihilist Pig
Footballguy
This post illustrates the misunderstanding people have of the NFL drug policy, and of the NFL in general.It doesn't matter if pot hurts Ricky's job performance in the way we typically think of NFL job performance. That's because Ricky Williams does not get paid to run the football. He does not get paid to rack up yardage, score touchdowns, or show up to work on time. Ricky Williams gets paid to be marketable to as much of mainstream America as he possibly can.There a lot of people smart people who have important jobs that smoke pot. Watch what happens with this whole story, the media jumps on it and get bad PR. I think it would be better the address a player about drugs if it is hurting his ability to do his job. Smoking once and awhile will not make a difference, I mean come on its the same as having a beer once a night. I can be a problem when used too much.
More accurately, he gets paid to be part of an ongoing cast-ensemble show, where the bosses want to be as sure as possible that EVERY performer is as marketable to as much of mainstream America as possible.
In the NFL, winning and losing may be the goal of each individual player, team, and fan. But it isn't the goal of the league, as a business. The goal of the league is to put on the show the people want to tune in to see. They are doing an exceptional job. In fact, you could argue they are doing the best job in the history of sports entertainment. The stadiums are overflowing every Sunday, the ratings are in an ongoing 30 year boom, and the advertisers are paying the league (and its players) billions for the privilege of being part of the show.
The NFL has made the "drug free" image part of the show. That doesn't mean guys aren't out there partying, or cheating to get an edge. But it does mean that the NFL has made cracking the whip to maintain that image part of their marketing. And they'd have to be nuts to change, because on the one hand, what they're doing is working wonders. And on the other hand, their two biggest sports league competitors are being called to task for being lax on the same subject by the sports viewing public. (Which costs them viewers, which costs them advertisers, which costs them money.) The NFL has done an amazing job of balancing the public's desire to see the best competitors money can buy with their desire to see a squeaky-clean product. The players aren't always the best (since guys like Ricky can get the boot), and they aren't always the cleanest (since guys like Romo can hang around so long), but on average the way they go about keeping everybody honest seems to appease the masses. The NFL works.
Ricky didn't commit any unforgivable sin. But he did fail to play by the script that has worked so well for the NFL for so long. If the NFL is publically saying that what he did was "wrong," it's because they are masters of knowing what the American public wants to hear. And they're betting most of their demographic wants to hear that the NFL is hard on drugs. The ratings seem to say that they're right. Ricky isn't a bad guy, he's just a guy whose habit was more important to him than staying on the gravy train.