NFL Disciplinary Issues: Why Can't Players Stay out of Trouble?

The enigma that is the mind of a player in the National Football League. What makes it so these grown men can’t control themselves off the field? 

Day in and day out you hear another story of a player being charged with some kind of violation, misdemeanor or felony. It’s gross negligence in my eyes, and completely pathetic that a professional football player cannot keep himself from run-ins with the law.

The most recent of these incidents involved Chicago Bears wide receiver Sam Hurd. The former Dallas Cowboy is staring at multiple federal drug charges following his arrest in Chicago on Saturday after allegedly trying to purchase marijuana and cocaine.

Not only did he reportedly try to purchase these illicit drugs, he is accused of trying to purchase a crap-load of them with the intent to sell.

What the heck would a person who is making over a million dollars a year to play a game (and I cannot stress enough that he plays a game for a living) sell drugs for? Is it the untaxed revenue that he would make from them? Or can he just not avoid it? Either way, it’s a disgrace.

In the same category as Hurd is Donte Stallworth, who pled guilty to DUI manslaughter and only went to jail for a month. God, that is insane. The man was drunk driving, ran someone over and got off on a technicality because the guy wasn’t crossing at a crosswalk. Are you kidding me? All I know is, if I get drunk, make the decision to drive and then kill a guy, I’m going to jail, no questions asked.

Dez Bryant got kicked out of a Dallas mall because he was told to pull his pants up, then proceeded to curse out some innocent security guard. Wait, what? Goosfraba, Dez. Goosfraba (see Adam Sandler’s Anger Management). That’s all I’m going to say about that.

And it’s not just perennially mediocre players like Hurd being accused of committing felonious crimes. It’s plenty of other high-caliber athletes also.

Ben Roethlisberger, two-time Super Bowl champion, has been accused of sexually assaulting two women. How quickly we forget about the serious allegations of superstar players. I cannot stress enough that this man has twice been accused of class-two felonies, and is still considered a role model by some.

The poster boy for NFL linebackers, Ray Lewis, lied to authorities about two murders that he witnessed. The 12-time Pro Bowl selection and Super Bowl MVP received 12 months probation and was fined $250,000 by the NFL.

Nobody talks about it anymore. All the kids who love him are too young to remember that he might have participated in murdering two innocent people.

Speaking of poster boys, public enemy No. 1 Pacman Jones is the poster boy for NFL player disciplinary issues. Public enemy No. 1 in the sense that he is the single most detrimental player to the NFL’s reputation, in my opinion. No matter what this guy does, they just keep letting him back in the league. But, he has been well-behaved for a little bit, which is of some consolation.

Michael Vick, Plaxico Burress, Hines Ward, Brandon Marshall, Joey Porter, Cedric Benson, Kenny Britt, Aqib Talib, Vincent Jackson, Marshawn Lynch, etc.—these are all household names and people who should in no circumstances be having encounters with law enforcement.

NFL athletes aren’t perfect; nobody is. So maybe I’m being too hard on these guys, right? Wrong. I’m no saint either, but I’m far from a celebrity and well out of the public eye.

These players need to realize that when they sign a contract, they don’t only need to abide by it when they are on the field. They need to conduct themselves as model citizens in public.

And if that means sticking to the routine of waking up, participating in football-related activities, then going home just to keep yourself out of trouble, that’s what needs to be done.