Welcome Back, Pac (Man)

Well, I haven't blogged in a while, for various reasons. Mostly, I have been trying to focus my efforts on Team Hamster Hat - www.teamhamsterhat.com - and I was busy all weekend with family stuff. Thankfully, Adam "Pacman" Jones has managed to get himself BACK in the news this week, which has inspired me to write.

For those who don't know, Adam "Pacman" Jones is a professional football player, who started his career with the Tennessee Titans. He is back (or, WAS back now) for this season, playing for the Cowboys, after having been suspended for the entire 2007 season. Now, you may be wondering what he could have done to deserve an entire season's worth of suspension, because after all, using steroids only gets you 4 games (and you can still make the Pro Bowl that year, ask Shawn Merriman).

I cannot go through the entirety of Pacman's legal troubles because I don't know the full history and it would be much too long to detail here anyways. But, there are definitely some fun highlights in Pacman's string of poor decision. He has been connected to a shooting in Las Vegas (the NFL has had 3 players shot in recent memory, 2 of whom were killed and the other is left paralyzed, so this is a MAJOR problem for the NFL). He also was the man who so famously decided to "make it rain" on some strippers, allegedly throwing over $80,000 in cash around a strip club. Also, the story goes that the night before the Pacman was to meet with the NFL commissioner to speak about his reinstatement from suspension, he was out patronizing the strip clubs 'til the wee hours of the night.

Finally, this past week, Jones was involved in an incident in a hotel, apparently a fight between himself and his bodyguard (hired by the Cowboys to keep him out of trouble, in what experts are calling "Ironic, dude. Super ironic."), where hotel employees had to call the police. He was not disciplined by the team, but has been suspended for at least 4 weeks by the NFL. There is potential that this could be his final straw and he will no longer be allowed in the NFL, but I would be surprised if that is the case.

Now, there don't seem to be many details about this altercation available, though there is speculation that it was alcohol-fueled. Now, there were no arrests made, and no charges pressed, which may lead you to think that this is "no big deal". And, taken as an isolated incident, I would agree 100% - everyone has been involved in a shouting match before and this could have just been a matter of simple overreaction on the part of those who phoned the police. However, when you consider the history of the Pacman, you can see that there are definite trends here that point to some serious problems. Everyone can make a bad decision or two and wind up in hot water. But this is a pattern of behavior for this guy, and many other athletes, that points to something much more serious than a single poor decision.

This can lead to all sorts of discussions about whether or not athletes are role models, and I will probably hold off on that discussion for another time. Specifically, I want to focus on the 2 primary things that I see plaguing sports on this front.

1) Talent > Character. I know, you're thinking right now that they are disciplining the Pacman, and that they are showing that character counts. And I agree, it's a step in the right direction. But the fact remains that if you have the talent, no matter your character, you will be able to get more than your fair share of chances. That is not to say that I do not believe in 2nd and even 3rd chances. I simply do not believe in infinite chances. Let's also keep in mind that many of these players have a history of such indescretions long before they even make it to the NFL. Many have been arrested multiple times in college, or multiple times with other teams. The Bengals alone had something like 15 arrests in a year or something like that. Think about it, 15 arrests for a 55 man roster? That's over 1/4 of your team! What percentage of the average populace do you think gets arrested in a year? Of course, this again speaks to other things, such as athlete's behavior based on social status, etc., which again may have to wait until another time. The bottom line is, if you can run a 4.4 40-yard dash and catch a football, no matter how much of a derelict you are, you will likely have more than enough chances to make an NFL roster.

2) An NFL career is less important than booze/pot/strippers. I know that this may seem like an oversimplification, but in the end, the message these athletes send is that they are willing to risk their NFL career so that they can continue to go to the strip clubs and get high and get drunk. Now, I am not trying to say that they should not be allowed to go take in some exotic entertainment and partake in a few cocktails. I do, however, think that if you KNOW your NFL career depends on you not doing those things, then you should not do them. When you know that getting busted will wind up costing you your NFL career and you still take the risk anyways, to me that is a statement that your career does not mean that much to you. These guys are not being asked to do anything unreasonable - just stay out of the police blotter! - and yet they still cannot manage to comply. And we're not talking about losing your $6.50/hour job flipping burgers and making shakes here. We're talking millions or even tens of millions of dollars. I realize how much hard work these guys put into their jobs, so it's not like their only task is to stay out of the blotter. But seriously, if someone offered you $12,000,000 to not go get wasted at a strip club, don't you think you'd have the willpower to resist?

Overall, it's just really sad what losers some of these professional athletes turn out to be. I am not saying that I am a perfect person by any stretch of the imagination, but I cannot fathom how powerful stupid or arrogant (or both) these athletes truly are.