One thing I've learned over the years is that people can be scumbags and being a professional athlete makes no difference in the matter. I love sports, I loved looking up to and admiring the pros when growing up. When I was younger, Michael Vick was my favorite athlete. I bought all the books and magazines on him, I bought his memorabilia, I became a Falcons fan because of him, and heck, I even still have my jersey from the fourth grade somewhere at home.
Everything changed the day Vick was indicted for dog fighting and sent to prison. The point I am trying to make is professional athletes are role models, whether they mean to be or not, and those with no regard for the law or really basic human morals should not have a place in professional sports.
The NFL recently stated that they will no longer be allowing any potential draft prospects with domestic violence, sexual assault, or weapons charges on their records to attend the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, and I, for one, was thrilled to hear this. The league teams were informed of the rule change via a memo from Troy Vincent, the NFL's executive vice president of football operations. "Invited prospects would be barred from any league-related event if a background check turns up a felony or misdemeanor conviction," said Vincent. "Players that refuse to submit a background check will also be uninvited. It also means those players would not be invited to the draft."
These guys can still hold private workouts with teams and participate in pro days as they are not NFL sanctioned events, so it's not as if their lives are ruined. They still have the opportunity to make it.
In recent years, it has been nearly impossible for the NFL to go a month without having one of their players arrested, often times for a domestic violence, sexual assault, or weapons offense. It's not as if these guys suddenly get the urge to hit their wives and girlfriends once they make it to the league. No, they have been this way for quite a while.
As the majority of us know, college sports is a very profitable business, so when you have a top college football player being accused of such charges, it is typically brushed under the rug.
"It is important for us to remain strongly committed to league values as we demonstrate to our fans, future players, coaches, general managers, and others who support our game that character matters," Vincent wrote in the memo.
It was about time the NFL did something to fix the issue of criminals in the league. After footage of Ray Rice, a running back for the Ravens at the time, knocking his fiance unconscious surfaced, one would think the NFL was going to crack down, but they did not. Greg Hardy, a defensive end for the Cowboys, was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend, there was no footage of the incident, so Hardy continued to play. As was mentioned earlier, professional athletes are role models, and you can't just have guys going around inappropriately touching women, I'm looking at you, Big Ben. Cutting the problem off at the root, while they are still in college, can possibly lead to a drop in the number of players arrested for these charges.
Let's take a look at Darren Sharper, he played in the league for about 13 years and was quite productive I must say. After retiring and working for NFL Network, he was charged with sexual assault in California and once that happened, he was charged with multiple sexual assaults in Louisiana, Arizona and Nevada. He eventually pled guilty to rape charges that involved nine different women. Now, I personally find it hard to believe that a serial rapist such as himself never did any of this during his college years. Of course, that is a complete assumption and speculation.
Cutting the problem off at the root and not just turning the blind eye because the individual happens to be athletically gifted minimizes the 'Darren Sharpers' of the NFL and honestly, I'm just happy the league is finally taking a step into the right direction. You're OK in my book, Roger Goodell, this time at least.
