There are people who take steroids and gamble on games in the world of sports on the field. Then there are people who do stuff off the field like murder/beat/abuse people and do harmful things to animal as well. Now we’re not asking all of these athletes to be perfect people but there is one thing where athletes don’t have any common sense nor do the leagues punish people for it.
That is driving under the influence aka driving while drunk. It doesn’t matter who you are as a person even if you’re constantly being a bad person or a good guy like Todd Helton 1B of the Rockies who was the most current star to be pulled over for DUI earlier this month. There has been an official investigation conducted. For PED’s, Congress has stepped in because it felt it was a big enough issue on which to waste money. Legends have been blackballed from the Hall of Fame. Players have been suspended and suspected.
Also, one of my favorite current baseball players Ryan Braun is being judged for being on a piece of paper that once sat in the office of a suspected peddler. PEDs is still a problem in baseball but that’s another story, however baseball and other sports have a more concerning problem in front of them.
Far too often you see players, managers and coaches having their mug shots taken after being arrested for DUIs. But the reaction from any of the professional sports heads is nothing. DUI arrests among baseball players might be below the national rate, at least as far as we know based on the players who have had arrests made public, but this is a serious problem for the league nonetheless. But they don’t see it this way nor do other leagues, if it did, why is there no penalty for driving drunk and risking other lives.
Another example is what minor leaguer Matt Bush did last March when he hit a man on a motorcycle while driving under the influence, instead, the league leaves it up to the judicial system to hand out punishments. Players can remain on the field as long as they have their freedom. Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program does not have alcohol as one of the banned substances like HGH or Steroids.
Other examples include then-St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa embarrassing himself by falling asleep at the wheel after drinking in March of 2007, then-Seattle Mariners infielder Adam Kennedy was busted. Things snowballed from there. Six major leaguers would be popped for DUI that spring, including superstar Miguel Cabrera, who forced other vehicles off the road, took a swig of whiskey in front of an officer after he was pulled over and physically resisted arrest. Cabrera says he has since stopped drinking alcohol.
He also famously said to the cops “Do you know who I am, I’m F-king Miguel Cabrera.” Since then and instances for beating his wife while intoxicated he has gone to clinics to get over this and is currently alcohol free. But in baseball taking steroids is much more serious then getting a DUI, but in normal work places if you get a DUI you will most of the time get terminated from your job.
Baseball players can take cabs or hire a driver/limo to get to places and most of them have happened during spring training when teams train in small obscure places which are from each other either in Arizona or Florida. A more close to home example is Hall of Famer and former White Sox player Carlton Fisk having a DUI. Those were examples in the world of baseball, here are examples in the NFL. Like the MLB the NFL doesn’t have any severe punishments for DUI or PEDS (Which is another story).
A famous example is former Jets Wide Receiver Edwards was arrested for DUI and he was on front of just about every sports page and every sports website in America when it happened. The Edwards case among a long series of behind-the-wheel incidents involving NFL players in the last year, including the Bengals’ Rey Maualuga, the Lions ‘Spencer, the Browns’ Gerard Lawson, the Chargers’ Vincent Jackson, the Cardinals’ Joey Porter, the Dolphins’ Ronnie Brown and Will Allen, the Seahawks’ Quinton Ganther and the Redskins’ Byron Westbrook (who was acquitted). Then, there are the coaches and executives.
A week before Edwards was arrested, Ravens assistant coach Andy Moeller was stopped at about 1 a.m. on a Saturday, and in June, Lions president Tom Lewand was picked up after a charity golf tournament. Things like these happen even though the fact is most teams in the league offer some form of car service intended to keep players (and coaches, trainers, scouts and front office executives) away from the kind of incident that Edwards found himself in.
The league has a contract with a company through which individual teams can subcontract car services. The Jets are among the 22 teams in the league, according to information given to The Associated Press, which provide car service to players for their personal use. The Jets use Player Protect, a New York/New Jersey firm that provides armed security from current or former law-enforcement agents and a 24-hour driving service.
Another famous example is Donte Stallworth then a Wide Receiver of the Browns. Who was driving under the influence back in 2009 where he hit a pedestrian and was charged with manslaughter and the idea of athletes getting away with killing or hurting someone because of their status and money is another issue. He did plead guilty and served a 30 day jail sentence, he also reached a confidential financial settlement to avoid a potential lawsuit from the family of 59-year-old Mario Reyes, according to Stallworth attorney Christopher Lyons.
Reyes was struck and killed March 14 by Stallworth, who was driving his black 2005 Bentley after a night drinking at a swanky hotel bar. He was facing 15 years in jail but instead he got a 2 year sentence of house arrest and 8 years of probation. He also underwent drug and alcohol testing, will have a lifetime driver’s license suspension and must perform 1,000 hours of community service.
The most recent example is Josh Brent of the Cowboys who drove under the influence and killed his best friend and teammate Jerry Brown in a crash. He was arrested on charges of intoxication manslaughter. The former collegiate teammates at Illinois were exceeding the speed limit in a 2007 Mercedes-Benz S60 driven by Brent when the car hit a curb at about 2:30 a.m. and flipped, police said. The posted speed limit was 45. Police said they did not know how fast Brent was driving but skid marks indicated a high rate of speed, police said. Brent after the crash was seen trying to take his friend out of the car and then Brown was taken to the hospital where was pronounced dead.
The investigator said it appeared the car skidded, hit the curb, swerved back into the middle lane, then spun off the road, driver’s side first. The car flipped several times, bouncing along the grassy embankment as it tumbled, before coming to rest upside down in the roadway after traveling nearly 300 yards. Brent also already had another DUI in college in 2009 and was sentenced to 60 days in jail, 200 hours of community service and two years probation. He also was ordered to attend a victim’s impact panel. The NFL again didn’t do anything letting the Court Officials make the decision if they go to jail or not.
The 2011 Season was not a good season for the Red Sox collapsing in September. Then the manager was fired. It was reported that 3 pitchers Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and John Lackey drank beer on their off days and called it a rally beer and also were eating chicken. They first denied doing that during the season and later admitted they did it and it was wrong of them. So for the 2012 season the new manager banned beer and other alcohol beverages in the clubhouse and on the road.
Instead of spending so much time, money and energy trying to dissuade and punish PED users, it’s time for MLB and the players union to focus to the much riskier problem of drunk driving. Longer home runs and careers aren’t as bad as someone possibly getting killed. Also the NFL should also worry about the safety of other people not just protecting their players on the field.
Others lives shouldn’t be put at risk because the sports leagues don’t care, they should suspend players like they do for drugs and other illegal things regardless what the court system does. Safety of everyone is the most important, and those big “egoed” athletes should just take a cab or bus or have the personal driving service for themselves or by their respective team/league. Remember the decision not to drive drunk could save more than just your life but others.