At a time when the NFL seems to be careening from one scandal to another, Saints tight end Benjamin Watson has a message for those who would assume that pro football consists of criminals, miscreants, and/or cheaters.
“The majority of the guys are not in the news,” Watson told the Christian Post. “They’re doing great things in the community, they’re doing great things at home, playing well and abiding by the rules. There’s probably more than the general population, to be honest with you.”
The problem for the law-abiding NFL players is that the profile and success of the league makes guys whose conduct otherwise would be relegated to local coverage at most into national news. And from the perspective of the news industry, stories about NFL players doing things they shouldn’t be doing currently generate far more reader interest than stories about NFL players doing things they should.
“It’s unfortunate that so many of the guys who are doing right are painted with the broad brush by the guys who aren’t,” Watson said. “Then when you have these situations like Ray Rice’s, they are things that are unfortunate and they’re bad. Most of the guys in the NFL would sit here and tell you we don’t condone the abuse of a child, any sort of abuse of a woman, breaking rules, failing drug tests or doing any of those things. We hold ourselves to a very high standard.”
It’s possible that the crimes of the few sully the many because the few become represented aggressively by the union that represents the many. But every player is entitled to have an advocate, especially if/when the league office seizes upon the unsavory nature of the player’s alleged (or actual) conduct as cover for violating the delicate balance created by Collective Bargaining Agreement between management powers and labor rights.
“When things like this happen, you have to take the punishment whatever it is,” said Watson, who recently won the Sports Impact Award at the annual K-LOVE Fan Awards in Nashville. But the punishment still must be fair, in light of past punishments for similar conduct and the permissible sanctions to which the NFL and the NFLPA have agreed.
The current problem for the league office is that the creation of an in-house system of dispensing justice to players who get in trouble on their own time led to an expectation that justice will be properly and competently dispensed. The failure to dispense enough justice to Ray Rice nearly brought down a Commissioner. And so now the NFL will never allow itself to be accused of going too easy on a player.
Which means that the punishments will be more significant. Which means that the outcome of a given case will be more conspicuous and newsworthy. Which means that the misdeeds of the few will continue to overshadow the good works of the many.
