I've heard "No Fun League" infinitely more. And it's right - they take any shred of individualism out of the game. I can understand the helmet thing, because of what happened. You don't want to bank millions on a guy who could throw away his abilities on a stoppable, dumb decision.
I agree its gone too far cleaning up the image from things like touch down celebrations and other such things, at the same time its due to continually pushed boundries by players that go into business for themselves often time at the detriment to the league that caused it.
Can't say I've ever had sex in a bar, but I've been drunk in a bar several times. I've met up with and hooked up with many women in a bar. Is it any less wrong because I'm an accountant and not a football player?
Any less wrong? No.
That said, the situations aren't likely to happen similar. You're not likely to have body guards that keep anyone from entering the bathroom. You likely don't have the natural star striking appeal as a 2 time winning Superbowl Champion QB on arguably the biggest franchise in the league that is likely to cloud peoples judgement upon initial meeting and make people not bat an eye at a near 30 year old at a 20 something college bar. You're not likely going to have high priced laywers and a huge defense team that could potentially dig up every shred of personal information about the girl while intimating that if she goes forward with this every single solitary portion of her sex life is going to be drug out into the national news from now till it ends.
It's not a right, it's a privilege and responsibility. Blah blah blah. Football players shouldn't be held to a higher moral standard than normal people.
Actually, they should. What got Ben isn't that different than what you get in major corporations or management type positions. If you're an executive in a company and you get embroiled in a scandal like this you're probably having similar things happen to you? Why? Because when you enter into a job that turns you into something more than just an individual but a representitive of a greater entity then suddenly the stakes get bigger.
This is even more so with Ben who is not some faceless executive but is a person a large portion of the population knows by name, knows by face, and is familiar with an IMMEDIETELY associates with both a team and a sports league. Due to this he does have to be held accountable more than the average person because he puts far more at risk than the average person by engaging in his irresponsable behavoir. That is one of the sacrifices one must make to be making millions of dollars playing a game for a living.
Pacman Jones is a cancer to the league, Vick is a malicious abuser, and Plaxico is insanely dumb to shoot himself in the leg in a night club - especially one in New York City where gun laws are oppressive. Ben tried to get a nut from some sorority bimbo in Georgia. Huge difference.
No, Ben's a dumbass. A dumbass that gets on an interview one year for one of the network pre-shows talking about Motorcycle riding and how he doesn't wear a helmet but that's okay because he's responsible, law abiding rider that doesn't ride a sports bike and had his liscense and so since the law doesn't require it he doesn't see why its bad. Later he proceeds to wreck, on his sports bike, without a liscense, reportedly when going faster then the speed limit, that tanks his and his teams season with the injuries.
Then you have the entire thing out in Tahoe last year with the woman accusing him of rape. The team comes out and supports him, he spurns the allegations, and the public gives him the benefit of the doubt. So what doe this mental giant do? A year later he chooses to go to a college bar, find a drunk girl, drag her in a bathroom, and have sex with her in the bar bathroom while his body guards keep people out. Consensual or not, that was ****ing ridiculously dumb, doubly so given his history.
The mans an idiot and continually now, 3 out of the past 5 or 6 years, caused himself, his team, or the NFL to look bad by acting either recklessly, stupidly, or a mix of the two. This damages the league, which impacts every single team and player in the league, and its that reason he is held accountable more than Joe Average who got drunk and banged out some girl last night at the bar.`
