elegantelliotoffen Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 several off the field legal issues per season as something that is the price ofsuccess on the football field? Is there any hope of building a great team with guys who stay out of trouble or is scooping guys like Lynch out of the gutter and hoping that they only commit misdemeanors the way it will be in the NFL from here on out? Unfortunately I feel that as long as games are selling out and TV ratings are high teams are going to continue putting guys like Pacman and Chris Henry out on the field. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PromoTheRobot Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 You have to ask yourself are football players worse now, or are they getting caught more now? The media was different back in the day. There was no ESPN, or hundreds of web blogs, etc, and newspaper reporters had such a cozy relationships with the teams they covered they would bury bad stories about players. If you take any group of people, there are going to be bad actors. Maybe pro sports has a few more because players grow up being treated like they are special and the rules don't apply to them. PTR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heels20X6 Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 You have to ask yourself are football players worse now, or are they getting caught more now? The media was different back in the day. There was no ESPN, or hundreds of web blogs, etc, and newspaper reporters had such a cozy relationship with the teams they covered they would bury bad stories about players. If you take any group of people, there are going to be bad actors. Maybe pro sports has a few more because players grow up being treated like they are special and the rules don't apply to them. PTR Well said. Professional sports has never been full of angels and saints. It's just that in this day of instant media, the wrongs of the players are much more visible and they're living under a microscope. If everyone was to watch your daily life, I guarantee that you'd do 10 things that could be scrutinized by the media and blown out of proportion (if they wanted to) by the end of the week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrDawkinstein Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 scooping guys like Lynch out of the gutter... ...putting guys like Pacman and Chris Henry out on the field. are you serious? we got Lynch from the gutter? youre comparing him to Henry and Jones? you think guys like Jim Kelly and Bruce Smith were angels? dont be so naive. troll. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramius Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 You have to ask yourself are football players worse now, or are they getting caught more now? The media was different back in the day. There was no ESPN, or hundreds of web blogs, etc, and newspaper reporters had such a cozy relationship with the teams they covered they would bury bad stories about players. If you take any group of people, there are going to be bad actors. Maybe pro sports has a few more because players grow up being treated like they are special and the rules don't apply to them. PTR good post. i think it has more to do with the 24/7 media available everywhere. Every little thing that goes wrong is now out in front of the world to see. Before algore invented the intertubes, you were relying on basically the local paper and the news on TV, which wasnt going to cover much more than the local teams and the really big national stories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongLiveRalph Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 The media coverage certainly has a lot to do with it. Nothing is swept under the rug anymore. Additionally, the best players in the game- who have likely lived a pretty "pampered" life typical of the star athlete through high school and college- enter the professional ranks and are extremely rich before they ever set foot on the field. Money can change people, we've seen it a thousand times. In the old days, if you were cut, you were out of a job and you delivered FedEx because you needed income. Now, if you get cut, you are already a millionaire, and you go write a blog, film a reality show, and cut an album. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill from NYC Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 If you take any group of people, there are going to be bad actors. Maybe pro sports has a few more because players grow up being treated like they are special and the rules don't apply to them.PTR This is SO true. Pro athletes are pampered like few others, and much of it starts in high school. Fans like to blame agents instead of the players when they screw up, hold out, etc. It has been happening for years. Now, it appears that their lawyers are the new villians. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. Rich Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 This is SO true. Pro athletes are pampered like few others, and much of it starts in high school. Fans like to blame agents instead of the players when they screw up, hold out, etc. It has been happening for years. Now, it appears that their lawyers are the new villians. High school? Try grade school. Kids going to sports camps that are middle school age are being bombarded by agents and even college recruiters nowadays. Too many guys who were bench warmers in their youth have kids and push them to be everything they were not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasoninMT Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 There is a VAST difference between "potentially" killing someone and killing someone... Rank the following recent player transgressions... Killing your spouse Killing a random person - or at least being in the presence of it and possibly having something to do with the death Taking Steroids Being involved in a traffic altercation which could have resulted in serious injury or death, but did not Taking Recreational Drugs - repeatedly Being the Kingpin of a Dog Fighting Ring Beating your spouse Being charged w/ a DUI/DWI (allegedly) Shooting a person outside of your nightclub and lying to police about it. If you ask me, Marshawn will get up to a 1 game suspension... Marshawn has alienated a portion of his fans by refusing to acknowledge his role and take responsibility for it... This is why we feel anger/betrayal... but in terms of league suspensions, I doubt it'll be much - even w/ Roger Goodell. We have more and more athletes in the public eye as leagues expand... We have much more media scrutiny than we ever have in history... I think it's fair for the commish to hold players to a higher standard, but at some point we have to allow a certain amount of bad behaviour. We accept it in ourselves, our friends, and our families, why not from our athletes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taterhill Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 wow only the 48th Marshawn thread you have started... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBilliever Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 I look at a suspension for an off the field related issue as an injury. Nothing can be done about it, the player is gone, and even though he's healthy, he's mentally injured (and pocketbook-wise injured) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macaroni Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 IMHO ....... You have kind of put the chicken before the egg ....... or is it the egg before the chicken????? What I'm trying to say is ......... Are these kids thugs ....... OR ....... are we (the sport) taking them from a semi-normal life making them zillionairs with too much money and time on their hands? Granted these kids have been pampered their whole sporting life from pee-wee through college ...... but even that does not prepare them for life as a professional "sports figure". I come from a ways back when even the Bills stars needed an off season job to make ends meet and put food on the table ..... today the players buy bottles champagne to use as squirt guns. Give a bunch of 22 year old kids with no real life experiance a few million dollars and a few months free time and what the heck do we expect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FightinIrishBills Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=594562 "If the options for the Western New York community is to not have the Bills at all - which is a real possibility when Ralph dies - might we not want to cut our losses now and look at a split season?" former Erie County executive Joel Giambra asked. "Maybe the first half of the season is played here, because of the weather, and the second half in Canada because of the dome. It's an hour-and-a-half away. It's not like you have to get in plane to go there." Thanks for your input, Joel. Now about those charges of abusing tax-payer money... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloWings Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 The media coverage certainly has a lot to do with it. Nothing is swept under the rug anymore. Additionally, the best players in the game- who have likely lived a pretty "pampered" life typical of the star athlete through high school and college- enter the professional ranks and are extremely rich before they ever set foot on the field. Money can change people, we've seen it a thousand times. In the old days, if you were cut, you were out of a job and you delivered FedEx because you needed income. Now, if you get cut, you are already a millionaire, and you go write a blog, film a reality show, and cut an album. And this is because we have 24-hour sports networks like ESPN. With all the time they have, you'd think they'd do what they did in the early-80s...find the most obscure sport and cover it. Instead, they find stuff about the most popular teams/players/people and discuss it ad nauseum. I joked with a friend of mine that now that the Bills have two players with negative headlines (Hardy & Lynch), they'll go 12-4 this year and/or win a playoff game or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albany,n.y. Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 There is a VAST difference between "potentially" killing someone and killing someone... Rank the following recent player transgressions... Killing your spouse Killing a random person - or at least being in the presence of it and possibly having something to do with the deathTaking Steroids Being involved in a traffic altercation which could have resulted in serious injury or death, but did not Taking Recreational Drugs - repeatedly Being the Kingpin of a Dog Fighting Ring Beating your spouseBeing charged w/ a DUI/DWI (allegedly) Shooting a person outside of your nightclub and lying to police about it. If you ask me, Marshawn will get up to a 1 game suspension... Marshawn has alienated a portion of his fans by refusing to acknowledge his role and take responsibility for it... This is why we feel anger/betrayal... but in terms of league suspensions, I doubt it'll be much - even w/ Roger Goodell. We have more and more athletes in the public eye as leagues expand... We have much more media scrutiny than we ever have in history... I think it's fair for the commish to hold players to a higher standard, but at some point we have to allow a certain amount of bad behaviour. We accept it in ourselves, our friends, and our families, why not from our athletes? OJ did a lot of the things you mention & is on the wall of fame. Now a lot of them were not as a Bill, but some, like the drugs were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obie_wan Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 OJ did a lot of the things you mention & is on the wall of fame. Now a lot of them were not as a Bill, but some, like the drugs were. I guess the point is - if you are going to bring players with character problems onto your teams who could cause major embarassment or worse - they better perform to an extremely high level on the field to justify the risk. Remains to be seen with Lynch Hardy is not even signed yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Endzone Animal Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 I would imagine there are more players with criminal records today than 40 years ago...just a hunch. I suppose that's in part a reflection of our culture today; glorify the drug dealer, the pimp, the gangbanger, the porn star, etc. Sports tends to be more a reflection of society than anything else, so if you don't like what you see from the NFL or NBA you probably are also not too happy with the plight of our pop-culture as a whole right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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