Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Why is Manziel still Playing?

A couple weeks ago a video from a cop's dash cam recorded an altercation where Johnny Manziel admitted to having "a couple drinks" and then driving and also recorded was Manziel's girlfriend saying that Manziel had "hit her a couple times". Now, coming off of the whole Ray Rice incident and the Greg Hardy situation you would think that the NFL would of acted on this Manziel thing faster. Instead Manziel was able to actually play last Sunday for the Browns. Rice was suspended, Hardy was suspended, but yet the NFL is "investigating" Manziel. The NFL also investigated the Rice and Hardy incidents, but at least to me it felt like their suspensions was doled out with less hesitation especially after the Rice video came to light. If the NFL is actually serious about punishing domestic violence incidents then Manziel should be on the commissioner's list just like Rice and Hardy ended up until a resolution has been found.

Manziel's rehab stint was for alcohol abuse and to better his image with Cleveland Brown fans and the Cleveland front office, but this new incident, while it's still being investigated, shows signs that "Johnny Football's" first rehab stint might not have stuck. NFL players shouldn't be allowed to play while their name may be in the news over any domestic violence related incident. That's if the NFL is really serious about domestic violence and it's sport. The language in the new domestic violence calls for a player could be suspended if the NFL's investigation finds "sufficient credible evidence that it appears a violation of the (personal conduct) policy has occurred. Those violations could include: The use or threat of violence; domestic violence and other forms of partner abuse; disorderly conduct" and considering the details from that dash cam video it should be a no brainer that something happen and Manziel was at the center of it.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Prisoner of the Moment

I'm always entertained when fans and critics become prisoners of a moment. Whether it be a play where a player gets hurt or a player does something that bothers them. I like to call this the "lynch mob" mentality and in this day and age with social media being as powerful as it has ever been it is easy for one or two media loud mouths to drag a slew of people into this attack mode that results from the lynch mob. Aftermath from the lynch mob attack tends to put pressure on leagues and players to often recant from things that may have happen in the heat of battle. Rule changes often come from outside pressure being put on the league. Because of this I'm still surprised that Washington still uses "Redskins" as their team name with all the noise being made about the offensive nature of the name.

Fans' issues should be taken into consideration, but should events that are rare in nature and complaints resulting from these events shape how leagues go forward? Player's safety should be a priority, but should a rare/freak injury to a player in any league cause the league to drastically alter how the game is played all together? With social media being what it is leagues need to understand what they should take with a grain of salt and what should be taken seriously. There are too many loud mouths out there complaining about how leagues should be ran and want to play armchair GM or commissioner.