We're NFL Apologists and It's Wrong

Aaron Hernandez is just the latest (and greatest) part of a problem the NFL keeps ignoring and we keep letting them do so. (Credits: Al Bello/Getty Images)

The National Football League has an average yearly revenue of $9 billion dollars, leagues milleniums ahead of any other major professional sports league in the U.S. It's by far the most popular league, with people shelling out big money just to go to preseason games. Grantland makes up arbitrary articles about the league entitled "91-Day Warning." ESPN covers the league almost as much as their cover LeBron's breakfast choices. The league's draft seemingly spans over a month. The Super Bowl is one sports-crazed President (cough...cough...Obama) away from turning into a national holiday. I mean we actually one day might not have to work the Monday after the Super Bowl. If there's any league that comes close to running the country, it's the National Football League. And the worst part? It's the league with the most serious issues, issues that are growing every single day.

I'm not here to talk about head injuries or maybe I am? I know it's a tired argument, but it doesn't take an idiot to realize that this is a violent game and to realize that every time two mammoth human beings slam skulls it's probably not a good thing for their brains. Playing in the National Football League is dangerous. Dangerous to mental health. Dangerous to spinal cords. Dangerous to shoulders, knees, legs, hands. But now it's becoming dangerous to society and that's when the issue leaves the sports realm and enters reality.

Aaron Hernandez, a Pro-Bowler, was just arrested for murder. The authorities believed he killed someone over an angry dispute. He'll get all the headlines for it. The Patriots have released him, cutting ties with him before he could even blink. Just like that, one instant an integral part of a Super Bowl contender, next jail-bound and jobless. Hernandez is just one (major) part of an increasingly alarming problem that is plaguing the NFL. Yet, just like the Patriots we will eventually cut ties and forget about Hernandez if and when he is found guilty. Aaron Hernandez will then be remembered as a murderer, not an NFL player. Not an NFL player.

What about Titus Young. Young was arrested three times last month, Two times in one day. Then when his father publicly expressed concerns with his son's mental health, no one (other then Brandon Marshall) even blinked. Bye bye, buddy. No longer on an NFL team, no longer the league's problem, no longer our problem as fans.

June 10th: Pacman Jones arrested for assault.
May 25th: Joe Morgan arrested for DWI.
May 12th: Jason Peters arrested for drag racing.
May 8th: Corey MacIntyre arrested for battery.
May 3rd: Daryl Washington arrested for assault.
May 3rd: Armonty Bryant arrested for DUI.
April 21st: Rolando McClain arrested for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
April 18th: William Moore arrested for battery.
Arrests figures via a UT San Diego database. 

Those figures are just over the last two months. Eight guys arrested for what most consider serious crimes and that's not accounting for the other guys who were arrested for other things like public intoxication or marijuana charges. The NFL's problem is no joke and yet we as a nation treat it like that, because we love the NFL so damn much.

We joked about the Bengals in 2006, when it seemed like every single player on the team got arrested (8 different players were arrested). We called them thugs, made jokes about how the locker room should have been in a jailhouse. We faulted Marvin Lewis and cracked that he was the jail warden. Then last year, when six Lions went to central booking, we did the same exact thing. Fitting for a city with such a high crime rate right? It's the NFL, and because we love the NFL, we apologize. And apologize. And apologize. All hail the mighty NFL.

If this happened in the NBA, there would be riots in the streets. People slinging around the word "thug" like it was the word "the." Congressional hearings tearing down the league, destroying David Stern. Funny thing is? The NBA is cleaner than it's ever been. Stern's dress code policy in 2005 not only changed the way the player's dressed, but it changed their mindsets. It made them think deeper about the actions, not just their wardrobe choices but also how they were going to act late at night in the club or whatever their late night choice of residence was. LeBron James isn't a source of hatred for any legal reason. He's never killed anyone, never gotten a DUI, has no crime record. The only reason people hate him is because he acts a bit arrogant, said some wrong things and has a big ol' blemish on his life record called the "The D***sion"

In the last year, there have only been four arrests in the NBA (five, if you include J.R. Smith's booking in May of last year). Long gone are the days of bandanas under fitteds, 3 XL tees or ugly baggy velour jump suits and more importantly long gone are the days of people calling NBA players "thugs." Or at least long gone are those days when people actually had real evidence that the league was filled with criminals. Stern made things right, why can't Roger Goodell?

There are a few reasons why Goodell can't steer the ship in the right direction, some I agree with and some I don't. One, it's the old "Violence breeds Violence" argument. Since NFL players play a violent sport and need to be in a "violent" mindset to be successful in their craft, they sometimes can't turn off that mentality once they leave the field. I don't buy it. It's sort of like the argument that says kids that play violent video games or watch violent movies are going to be more violent. The correlation doesn't seem real to me, it seems like some ridiculous idea that mom's that don't like video games/football came up with.

Two, the mental health issue. Now, this makes some sense. As researchers start to understand the down-the-road-effects of concussions, they've started to link it to depression. Depression leads to anger problems, drinking problems and other issues that could cause an NFL player to want to hurt someone. How you combat this issue, while retaining the sports central core idea (violence) seems almost impossible to me. You can't take the violence out of football and still think people will love it the way they do now.

Three, because Roger Goodell, frankly, might not think twice about it. Now, I don't know this for fact and I'm not claiming that he doesn't care, but dollar signs can truly blind people. He's running the National Football League as enjoys it's most popular period ever. Every single team produces a positive revenue, even the Jacksonville Jaguars. Everyone salivates over the NFL and he's probably the only guy, aside from LeBron James, who could hijack an hour of ESPN programming and break viewing records. Roger Goodell doesn't just run the NFL, he runs the sports world. Would I blame him if he couldn't see past all the success the league is enjoying? No, I wouldn't. I don't how I would handle being the commissioner of the NFL, so I won't blame the guy's moral compass unless I ever met him. But, you also certainly cannot throw the idea in the garbage.

I'm just sick of us getting on our hands and knees for the NFL, letting it's superstars beat their girlfriends, drive absolutely blasted or, in Hernandez's case, murder other humans. Don't get me wrong, I love football just as much as the next guy, but that's why I enjoy college football more. It's about the teams, not the players, not even when the players are Reggie Bush or Cam Newton. Again, I'm not telling you to abandon the NFL and pick up a college team as your only football rooting interest; the college game has its issues too. However, I am telling you to stop apologizing for every single NFL player that gets arrested.

There's a serious problem in the NFL and if we don't fix it properly soon, the league we love so dearly will be a thing of the past.