We’ve all read about Titans WR Kenny Britt being arrested yesterday for multiple things including eluding an officer and hindering apprehension. Since the NFL imposed the lockout in March multiple players have been arrested on some foolishness. Raiders OL Mario Henderson was arrested for carrying a concealed deadly weapon, Packers DL Johnny Jolly was arrested for possession of codeine, Buccaneers CB Aqib Talib was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and there are many more. There have been 18 NFL players arrested since the beginning of 2011 and 10 of those arrest have occurred since the lockout.
Soon after the NFL lockout was imposed NFL Spokesman Brian McCarthy sent out an email that stated: “Any misconduct that is detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the NFL will certainly be addressed when play resumes.”
Are NFL players disregarding this? Or did they even read this? I ask this because a lot of them sure are acting as if they have free reign to do whatever they want to do without the threat of penalty or consequence. So I guess the question is with the NFL locking the players out and the NFLPA dissolving should NFL enforce the personal conduct policy during the lockout? Personally I think that they should. I look at this current situation for NFL players more as a layoff. When a person is laid off from a job they still have to live up to certain standards imposed by their employers because they will be coming back. All of these players will be back on the field so I think that they should still be held to the same standards as if there was a Collective Bargaining Agreement. CBA or no CBA they are still representing the NFL. Whether you agree or disagree the fact of the matter is that these players will be reprimanded after the dust settles.
Do they understand that they will already be losing money for every game that is not played for the 2011 season and once the Roger Goodell starts handing out suspensions they’re going to be out of even more money? You know maybe they have money like that though. I would have never guessed that Carson Palmer had $80 million in the bank, but we all remember he said that when he was requesting a trade from the Bengals earlier this year. So maybe these guys that are getting arrested can handle losing out on multiple paychecks.
I wouldn’t bet any money on that though. Some of these guys just need to get hobbies or something. Go travel the world like Larry Fitzgerald or go on Dancing With the Stars like Hines Ward. Go join another professional sports team like Chad Johnson. Better yet, why not continue to prepare yourself for the season. Even if the season does not happen on its scheduled date and time….eventually there will be football.
