For the second consecutive week, the NFL was broadsided with a
tragedy – a preventable, painful tragedy.
Josh Brent at the Irving
Police Department.
On Saturday, Dallas Cowboys
nose tackle Josh
Brent was charged with intoxication manslaughter after what Irving,
Texas, police described as a high-speed early morning crash on State Highway
114 that caused his car to flip at least once before winding up on a service
road.
His victim was teammate
Jerry Brown, a 25-year-old linebacker from St. Louis. Brown, a passenger
at the time of the crash, was a teammate of Brent's at the University of
Illinois.
(Jerry Brown)
This comes on the heels of
Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher committing suicide in
front of his coach and general manager last Saturday after murdering Kasandra
Perkins, his girlfriend and the mother of his 3-month-old daughter.
Two unrelated incidents; two
horrific, troubling moments.
The Belcher case was quickly
seized as a political opportunity – pounced on to discuss everything from guns
laws, to football's violent way, to concussions. Brushed over was the core
issue – Belcher was a bad guy, a cowardly murderer. Yet even as the tangents
strained, the voices just got louder.
If the Brent case is going to
go the same way, with big publicity and pointed discussion, then let it be used
for a more practical purpose: to continue to remind players and fans alike of
the dangers of drunk driving, particularly in the NFL community where it
remains a scourge.
Let it be used as one more
example for the need to plan ahead, to call a cab (or limo for some of these
guys), to find a designated driver, to stay home or anything else to avoid this
absolutely, 100-percent preventable issue.
Even Belcher drove after
drinking last week. Police discovered him at 3 a.m. last Saturday sleeping off
a night of partying in his Bentley, which was parked yet running. The cops gave
him a break; he was allowed to go inside a nearby apartment complex and get
some rest. Hours later, he went home and shot Perkins nine times.
He likely could've been
detained at 3 a.m.
DUI is the league's biggest
legal issue. A study by the San Diego Union-Tribune found that 112 of the 385
NFL player arrests (29 percent) between 2000 and 2008 involved drunk driving.
Belcher's crime was
spectacular but beyond rare. The NFL doesn't have a murder problem. It doesn't
even have a gun problem. If anything, the league's players are better behaved
than the general public. That same Union-Tribune study found players arrested
at a rate of one per 47. The U.S. population was one per 21, more than twice as
often.
However, drinking in excess
then driving remains difficult for the league to curb, the one issue it just
struggles to contain.
It's not all that different
for the rest of the country. We've been trying to wipe out drunk driving for
generations now – from the formation of MADD, to the lowering of legal alcohol
levels to endless mass publicity campaigns. There is no one left that doesn't
realize not just the dangers of driving drunk but also the likelihood of
getting arrested. There may not be anyone who doesn't know at least one victim.
Yet it continues over and
over, probably because it's a split-second decision, often made when a person's
judgment has, by definition, been chemically altered.
This wasn't even Brent's
first trouble with the issue. He plead guilty in 2009 to DUI while in college.
He was sentenced to 60 days in jail, community service and ordered to sit in on
a victim's impact group.
It didn't take.
Jerry Brown (Getty)
Again, this is a societal
problem. The NFL doesn't want this. The NFL already stresses it to players at
every turn. It used to run what was called the “safe ride” program to get
players home, but it was taken over by the NFL Players Association in 2009 over
concerns about confidentiality. The NFLPA still operates it [albeit at the cost
of $85 per ride, more than most cabs] with the phone number on the back of
every union card. Both groups can only attempt to do more.
If there is one NFL trend
that may be exposing itself here is that players, perhaps in higher numbers
than expected, are partying hard on Friday night with a game normally less than
48 hours later.
Young people are going to go
out. That's unlikely to ever change, but maybe teams, or the league overall,
can focus on providing safe rides or significant reminders on that night of the
week. Who knows? Let there be more discussion on potential solutions.
Belcher committed a wild act
that brought demands and finger-pointing from every possible angle, regardless
of if they were germane to the issue.
Brent's crime is more common,
less eye-popping and almost non-political. There aren't any special interests
to inflame or any pending lawsuits to build an argument off – the stuff that
drives too many news cycles today.
This, however, is the bigger
deal. This is the most likely crime a NFL player will commit. This, sadly,
wasn't all that shocking.
¶
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Woe unto them that
rise up early in the morning, [that] they may follow strong drink; that
continue until night, [till] wine inflame them!
|
The LORD shall smite
thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart
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