Did Pacman Get Justice?

One of the papers I read in the past day or so had a bunch of pictures of NFL players who have had recent run-ins with the law.

This morning’s USA TODAY reports that the Tennessee Titan’s, Adam “Pacman” Jones, “facing felony charges in two states” has been suspended for the ’07 – ’08 season. The Cincinnati Bengals’ Chris Henry,” arrested four times in three states since 2005,” has been suspended for half of the upcoming season.

The owner of the New England Patriots said “I hope this sends a message to people in our league for how to conduct themselves. We have to be careful. People in America can’t relate to overindulged athletes not acting responsibly.” His statement nicely juxtaposes the two competing issues – punishment for crime by the government and protection of profit by professional sports leagues.

Neither player has been tried or convicted on any of the charges. Roger Goodall, the NFL’s commissioner, invoked the league’s “conduct detrimental to the game” power. Warren Sapp, an Oakland player, reacted “Oh, that ‘we can do whatever we want’ rule.”

I’m waffling on which side to take in this. The lawyer in me wants to read the NFL’s player agreement “conduct detrimental” clause. My inner lawyer also understands the New England owner’s “send a message” stance. He doesn’t want anything happening to slow down the money train. I shake my head and roll my eyes somewhat at both Sapp’s naiveté (you signed the contract didn’t you Warren?) and the owner’s disingenuous labeling of the players as “over-indulged” (who does he think was the supplier of the excess indulging?).

I’ve read a lot lately about the “thuggery” problem in professional sports. Most sports writers and cable “news” show hosts are middle-aged white guys. They are put off, to put it mildly, and alienated, to put it strongly, by 20 year old millionaires who sport dredlocks, tattoos and assorted “bling.” The pundits’ audience, mostly middle-aged white guys, and the writers’ audience, guys, from twenty to fifty something, also react negatively to the “thugs” due to a varying combination of generation, culture and wealth differences. To some extent, for some of the audience, substitute race for the word culture in the last sentence.

So, the title to this post is misleading. Justice has nothing to do with the issue. Pacman will receive justice down the road when he goes to court. Right now, the issue is what does professional sports do with its spoiled kids. For decades it did nothing. As with “performance enhancing” drugs, it has done nothing until seeing an issue with potential negative impact on revenue. From the leagues’ points of view the problem is framed by money. “What do we have to do to keep these kids out of the media?” First, publicly wap a couple. Pacman would have made $1.29 million this season. Henry is going to be out $435K. Sorry guys, but you are the medium for the message to your fellow delinquents. Next, set up some counseling and support programs for the rookies according to the article. After that? Once a year hold a meeting where police tell the players they can go to jail for doing the things they do (part of the NFL’s newly announced thuggery policy).

My conclusion: Corporate America makes a poor, and late to the party, parent. Society needs to wap some parents upside the head. then set up some real counseling anf support programs for them to make up for what their parents, the thugs’ grandparents didn’t do for them.