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by eaglesrule » Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:51 am moochman wrote:
The NFL, like other pro sports, have nothing in common with everyday work. There are anti-trust laws that allow for employees to be subjected to treatment that ordinary grunts are not. My issue isn't with players owning up to being a professional, because for the most part I don't care about their personal lives-just play hard. My issue is with the league deciding to act as judge and jury over legal off-field issues that we already have the law to mete out punishment. And one of the reasons is that Goodell's moral goons are punishing players prior to them being found as guilty. The Vick case was a perfect examply of how the league should deal with it. The law busted him and he is serving time. The league need not do a thing. We have laws. The other issue I have with the league trying to be moral police is where are lines drawn and are they fair for all? For example, we see that according to Goodell the punishment is much more severe if your behavior tarnishes the image of the league than if your behavior tarnishes the credibility of the games. Seems backwards to me. Just seems like opening Pandora's box it ought be left for others more qualified to open.
To say it has "nothing" is a stretch, it isn't wholesale different in a lot of ways, it's just that players, coaches and high level managers also serve as spokespersons at the same time, whereas most normal grunts in the workforce have differentiated positions. But like the "regular" world, the more money you get paid, usually the more "on call" you are, the more "public" you are, and the more is expected of you both in the office and outside of it. I think this is a weak argument, especially if we take your beliefs at face value--players have CONDUCT clauses in their contracts. Again, the law is really about the minority of society and is only the bare minimum standard of behavior. I don't think the league is really being the "moral" police at all, because that, to me, implies they are nitpicking or something.
It would be one thing if they were making a monster deal out of pot and chasing them down for little stuff. But in my opinion, hitting women, DUI, getting involved in strip club shootouts, etc., they have every right to get involved. Intrinsic in an NFL player's career path and contract for that matter is meeting a certain standard of behavior is part of the job. In the normal world it falls under the "duties as assigned" meaning you can't simply say "hey I do my job" as you narrowly define it. Part of an NFL players job is upholding the image. It's "duties as assigned" even if it wasn't spelled out in the contracts, which behavior is.
In another way even if this stuff wasn't spelled out, its still ridiculous. It's like the baseball players saying HGH and steriods "weren't against the rules." Well technically true, but it's illegal and shouldn't need to be explicitly spelled out. Like you may do heroin on your own time, but your work can still fire you for it.
