Crime and Punishment or Lack Thereof

The world of sports has been enduring a rather bumpy ride of late, and no one is dealing (quite poorly) with more turbulence than NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.  If his league received any positive publicity regarding gay rights when all eyes were on Michael Sam during the draft, it has quickly been squandered one controversy after another.  As appetizer, the Washington Redskins are under more heat than ever before to change their racist name.  Had the league pressured the team to comply, Goodell could have placed it on the right side of history.  Instead the issue remains a case of team owner Dan Snyder refusing to cater to people’s racial sensitivities while the league looks away.

Squabbling over a team name is nothing compared to what took place next.  Ray Rice was somewhat improbably forgiven by his girlfriend for punching her into a state of unconsciousness.  Now Janay is Mrs. Ray Rice and the two of them are a united front against those declaring that something needs to be done to discourage domestic violence.  Roger Goodell was in as nearly a forgiving mood as Janay, suspending Ray for a mere two games.  That was before TMZ showed us the rest of the tape, the portion showing not just Ray dragging Janay’s body out of the elevator in nonchalant fashion, but the punch that preceded it.  Goodell tried some too little too late maneuvering by declaring that future domestic violence offenses will result in no less than a 6-game suspension.  Eventually he did a 360 and suspended Ray Rice indefinitely.  He thought we would accept his claim that he had never seen the entire video tape prior to TMZ’s public release of it, so that’s why his initial punishment was so lenient.  Nobody bought it.

We weren’t over being angry at Roger for completely mishandling Ray Rice’s transgressions when Adrian Peterson went and got himself indicted for abusing one of his kids.  Did AP possibly think it was an acceptable form of discipline to whip a 4 year old with a switch so severely that it left the back of child's legs looking like he was on the set of 12 Years a Slave?  Oh yes he did.  Reggie Bush chiming in that if necessary he’ll harshly discipline his own 1 year old daughter because tough love is what it’s all about certainly didn’t help matters.  In their infinite wisdom the Minnesota Vikings decided that since Peterson hasn’t been convicted of a crime yet, he could continue playing and not miss so much as a single game.  After public outcry and major corporate sponsors threatening to jump ship, they thought better of it.  Goodell has barely made a peep about Adrian Peterson, still licking his wounds while an investigation is underway regarding his bungling of Ray Rice.  Add names such as Greg Hardy and Ray McDonald and Jonathan Dwyer to the pile of problems that Goodell should be taking care of rather than hiding under his desk.  Agreement on a new drug policy is certainly not the cure to what ails him.  It’s barely window dressing on a gaping wound.

Ray Rice is appealing his suspension. Punishing him sufficiently in the first place would have made life much easier for Roger Goodell. 6 to 8 games probably would have been satisfactory to many who rightfully felt 2 games was ridiculous.  It remains to be seen how lawyers will advise Adrian Peterson to counter.  Since he hasn’t plead guilty or been convicted of a crime, he may have a strong case down the line.  Roger Goodell just wants it to all go away.  But the only way for that to happen may be for him to go away, leaving the NFL commissioner job in somebody else’s hands.

If Goodell is replaced, the new guy/gal may want to study the playbook of NBA commissioner Adam Silver.  Hit with drama almost immediately after taking over for David Stern, Silver has fared well as the new sheriff in town.  I was surprised by how harshly he dealt with Donald Sterling and thought it might blow up in his face, but Silver stood his ground and Sterling tearfully slunk away looking like a crazy old bigot best quickly forgotten.  Perhaps Silver has simply been lucky so far.  Or it could be he’s the smarter commissioner who knows the best way to deal with a troublesome situation is to confront and strongly impose your moral code upon it.    

There were plenty who disagreed with how Goodell handled the Saints in their Bounty-gate scandal, felt his reaction was too severe, but at least Roger came off as a man of conviction with intolerance of violence not so long ago.  Once upon a time Roger Goodell was the tough love guy in charge.  Now he looks like a guy who is in way over his head.  

But when it comes to being lenient on cash cow athletes, he is certainly not alone.

John Amaechi - Journeyman Trailblazer

Recently it was announced by former NBA center John Amaechi, as preface to the release of the autobiography he is peddling – Man in the Middle, that he is gay. As a player, Amaechi did little to gain the attention of any but the most attentive of professional basketball fans. He was by no means a star in the league, but rather, what is commonly referred to as a journeyman. This is not to say that his career was completely uninteresting, for there were certainly some noteworthy accomplishments during his time on the court. Although it is rare for a male professional athlete to come out of the closet, particularly those who played team sports (the short list consists of the NFL’s David Kopay, Roy Simmons and Esera Tuaolo, along with Glenn Burke, and Billy Bean from Major League Baseball), John Amaechi had already claimed rarity status prior to telling the world he is homosexual by being a British player in the NBA. Even though the league has become increasingly international over the past decade plus, England has not been a primary exporter. Not only are players from the UK few and far between, but so are intellectuals who admit they performed not out of passion for the game, but simply because it was a logical business decision for a man measuring six feet – ten inches and weighing 270 pounds. Off the court he was known for being cerebral, introspective, multi-faceted, and a pretty good interview. On it, he only managed to score 6.2 points per game over the course of a career that spanned five seasons, with 10.5 ppg the most he ever averaged in a season. His focus was probably diluted by intentions to become a child psychologist and various charitable endeavors. Yet he managed to earn maximum significance from his baskets by being credited with the first hoop ever scored in Miami’s American Airlines Arena, and also scoring the first NBA points of the new millennium on January 2nd of the year 2000. Other than this, his most notable play was not cashing in on his best season by accepting a six year $17 million deal to sign with the world champion Los Angeles Lakers, instead returning to play for the Orlando Magic for about a third of that. This was a loyal and perhaps even noble decision, but not an especially bright one from a financial perspective. For his sake, the deal he made for his book was hopefully a shrewder one.

Three years after his playing career came to an end, John Amaechi has made headlines by becoming the sixth professional male athlete from one of the four major U.S. sports (basketball, baseball, football, hockey) to acknowledge being gay, and the first pro basketball player to do so. There was a time not too long ago when this would have been a considerably bigger issue. But in the post Brokeback Mountain / Will and Grace era, overt homophobia is no longer politically correct. In this day and age when an actor on a TV show makes derogatory comments about the sexual orientation of a cast mate, it is not the outed actor who finds his job in jeopardy. Instead, the offending speaker is forced to remove his foot from his mouth and opt for rehabilitation. I’m not exactly sure what going into rehab for insulting someone’s preference of mate even means. Up until the Grey’s Anatomy incident, I was under the belief that rehab was strictly for substance abusers. But apparently there is a correctional facility for just about any socially unacceptable behavior. Perhaps employees of the advertising agency behind the Snickers commercial that first aired on Super Bowl Sunday, and was quickly denounced as insulting to the gay community, were sent to rehab as well. Might this also be the eventual fate of Jerry Sloan, Amaechi’s coach when he played for the Utah Jazz, who has been accused of being less than accepting of his former center’s alternate lifestyle? After all, when you consider that John Amaechi’s autobiography has been published by none other than ESPN, it seems clear that the sports establishment is officially choosing the path of enlightenment over stereotypical belittlement and old school disgust. The only thing missing is a catchy slogan. Let me the first to suggest – You’re so gay, and with that I’m okay.

Reaction to Amaechi’s admission throughout the NBA has been predictably mixed. For every “to each his own as long as he does his part on the court and doesn’t dare hit on me” there has been a “that is not cool because we shower together”. To the perspective of some Amaechi has no doubt attained heroic status, the Rosa Parks of Black British Ballers. Then again, Rosa did not claim she had every right to sit her tired self in the front of that bus from the safety of the curb after choosing to quietly ride in the back. She took her stand, literally her seat, while she was in the line of fire of those angry glares from white passengers. So let us reserve the highest of praise for the first player to acknowledge he is a gay man while still an active player, preferably one who is of All Star caliber. A journeyman player can be cut from his team and not picked up by any other without much being made of it. But if Michael Jordan in his prime had said he was gay, what would have been the reaction to that by teammates, opponents, fans, sponsors, endorsers, and the media?

Amaechi spoke on the subject of gays in the NBA in an interview back in 2002. “If you look at our league, minorities aren’t very well represented. There’s hardly any Hispanic players, no Asian Americans, so that there’s no openly gay players is no real surprise. It would be like an alien dropping down from space. There’d be fear, then panic. They just wouldn’t know how to handle it.” This strikes me as an accurate characterization of a hypothetical situation at that point in time. Would it be accurate in 2007? 2012? 2020? The answer, whatever it may be, is probably inevitable.

By Roy L. Pickering Jr.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17224546/