Is Roger High?

By on August 28, 2014

 

OOPPS! Josh Gordon can't catch a reduction this pre-season. (Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports)

OOPPS! Josh Gordon can’t catch a reduction this pre-season. (Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports)

So I see Josh Gordon will miss the entire 2014 season because he may have been smoking the turbo performance enhancing drug known as Marijuana, yet Ray Rice a self-admitted wife beater will miss only 2 games for knocking out his wife in an elevator. Way to keep it classy Rog! I would love to see Roger Goodell try to justify how beating a woman is the lesser crime of the two. Goodell has set the tone that weed is evil and assaulting your wife is perfectly acceptable. His actions here show that he would rather a player sucker punch a defenseless woman in an elevator than to see a player have a cloud of smoke follow them. Maybe Goodell enjoys seeing women getting beat, maybe that’s his fetish, maybe he has a soft spot for guys that tag up a woman’s face, I don’t know it’s just odd to me that he is not as firm with assaulting a woman as he is with drugs and alcohol.

Marijuana is legal in some States and it’s used as medical treatment in others, but I’m fairly certain that punching your wife is illegal in all 50 States. Roger Goodell sees things a little differently, he sees what Ray Rice did as an accident, a one-time thing and he sees what Josh Gordon did as habitual. Hey Rog, guess what… Most men that beat a woman don’t do it just once and never again. I would suggest Roger travel the country and stop in on a few battered women’s shelters and ask the women there if the men that beat them just did it once or it occurred numerous times. I’d be willing to bet that 0% of the ladies there say the men only hit them one time.

While Roger is out on his cross country fact finding mission I advise him to interview a few medical professionals and research if marijuana is a performance enhancer, I doubt he finds any  evidence that states smoking weed makes one faster, stronger, or able to leap a 10 story building in a single bound. No Mr. Goodell weed doesn’t turn one into Superman, it simply helps with chronic pain, chronic pain that many of the players in the NFL live with on a daily basis.

Pro Bowl beater: Ray Rice (PR PHOTO)

Pro Bowl beater: Ray Rice (PR PHOTO)

I understand the current NFL policy states marijuana is a banned substance, I get that Josh Gordon came up hot on more than one occasion, but what I don’t get is that Roger Goodell thinks beating a woman is less of a crime than relieving pain. Mr. Goodell is still operating under the idea that Reefer Madness is alive and kicking rather than looking around and seeing how times are changing and that marijuana is becoming legal and decriminalized in State after State. Roger Goodell has a chance to change the perception of a natural herb that could help a large portion of the players in his league cope with pain, but he would rather have the players mask the pain with prescription narcotics until they are out of the NFL at the benefit of the team and the league and at the detriment to the player.

This finger pointing doesn’t end with Goodell, I have more than one finger that points and I intend to use as many as needed. While it’s Roger Goodell that could change the policy it’s the Team/Organization, the agent and the player that need to work on ways to keep everything on the up and up.

Even though I think having marijuana as a banned substance is insane it is the policy and each player should adhere to the rules, I have to point a finger at Josh Gordon as well. He knows the rules, the best and only thing he should do is stay away from it and stay away from those that want to use it around him. If weed means that much to him then he should spend that energy advocating for a policy change within the NFL, don’t disregard the rules and screw over the team, himself and the fans. Gordon has a year off to think about this and should he ask to be reinstated I doubt the Reefer Madness Commissioner will do the right thing, no Roger will stand his ground on this one. Llike it or not the Browns organization will be without the best Wide Receiver they’ve probably ever had for the entire season because he smoked a natural, earth grown herb.

NEXT FINGER!!!! The Organization. The organization should be providing “Handlers” to those players they deem high risk or unruly. NFL organizations make plenty of money and employ plenty of pointless personnel that they could add a few “Handlers”, “Mentors”, or “Life Coaches” whatever they want to call them. The Team should look to hire retired players that were proven leaders off the field, great role models that shadow and mentor these young guys until they are mature enough to understand what they are really doing. Taking a kid from College who grew up with nothing but dreams and putting him in the NFL where all his dreams can become a reality is not an easy transition. Having the right entourage is vital to the growth of the player, by placing a guy that has been through the NFL life and one who is not afraid of confrontation with a young kid will help keep them in line and protect them from the hazards that so many young players fall into.

No, the Agents are safe from my finger pointing either; I would like to think that agents have the most to lose after the player but many seem not to care about the guys they represent. They should want to protect their player at all costs, make themselves 100% available 100% of the time. The agent should be the first person the player hears from about the dos and the don’ts of the league, the agent should want to ensure their player is safe and in control at all times, but many don’t care. I know these young players are considered “MEN” because they are in their 20’s, but they are living a new live, new money, new problems and the agent should do whatever it takes to school the players on these issues. They may be men but they are not mature or responsible enough to be on their own.

I know a few agents and the ones I know are pretty good guys, they chose to work with grounded, mature players that will not provide headache after headache. These agents don’t want the issues that go along with these troubled or high risk players and they should be commended on their actions. They truly care about making the players out to be the best possible person they can become. The problem is the agents that don’t care about the players personal growth; they only care about the next contract or the next guy with his next contract. No matter how you look at it, these young men that come from nothing and are handed the keys to the kingdom need as much guidance as possible.

Roger, Hit her but don't roll one up! (PR PHOTO)

Roger, Hit her but don’t roll one up! (PR PHOTO)

Alright, I’m done pointing fingers but I must recap a few things. The way I look at it Roger Goodell would rather see a player viciously beat a woman than have a player smoke a joint, the organization would rather turn their cheek and let the League handle the problem than to hire a mentor to help guide the younger players until they reach maturity and the agents seem to ignore the problems all together. The Commissioner, the teams and the agents treat these guys the same way an absent parent treats a juvenile delinquent… they hope somebody else helps them.

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