9781422283073

ALL ABOUT PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL P ro F ootball P layers in the N ews Two Sides of the Story

by Brian C. Peterson, with Kate O’Hare

ALL ABOUT PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL

F antasy F ootball

F ootball and P layer S afety

I nside C ollege F ootball : P reparing for the P ros ?

I nside H igh S chool F ootball : A C hanging T radition

I nside P ro F ootball M edia

T he I ntense W orld of a P ro F ootball C oach

T he P ro F ootball D raft

P ro F ootball P layers in the N ews

R unning P ro F ootball : C ommissioners , O wners , F ront O ffice , and M ore

T he S uper B owl : M ore T han a G ame

P ro F ootball P layers in the N ews : T wo S ides of the S tory

by Brian C. Peterson, with Kate O’Hare

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© 2017 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc.

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Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3576-8 Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4222-3584-3 EBook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8307-3

First printing 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

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C ontents

Chapter 1: Choices in the News …….…….…….…… 6 Chapter 2: Headline Makers …….…….…….…….…… 22 Chapter 3: The Rise and Fall of Sports Heroes …….… 34 Chapter 4: The Good Guys …….…….…….…….…… 48 Find Out More …….…….…….…….…….…….…….… 62 Series Glossary of Key Terms …….…….…….…….… 63 Index/About the Author …….…….…….…….…….… 64

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Words to Understand: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase the reader’s understanding of the text, while building vocabulary skills. Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Educational Videos : Readers can view videos by scanning our QR codes, providing them with additional educational content to supplement the text. Examples include news coverage, moments in history, speeches, iconic sports moments, and much more!

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C hapter 1

Sheldon Richardson of the New York Jets will be in the backseat of many cars after he was caught driving 143 mph (230 kph) in 2015.

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C hoices in the N ews

Type “football players in the news” into an Internet search and, most likely, you’ll find a series of unpleasant headlines. “NFL Player Arrested.” “Another Athlete in Trouble With the Law.” “NFL Concussion Crisis.” Or “Organization Acknowledges Negligence in Football Player’s Death.” There are few mentions of the positive things that NFL players are doing every day. The San Diego Union Tribune , for instance, maintains a data- base of all NFL players who have been arrested or cited for viola- tions greater than speeding tickets since 2000. During the past 15 years, more than 800 players have appeared in this database, most

Words to Understand circulation the number of copies sold

cited in this case, ordered to appear in a court of law negligence failing to take proper care or attention objectively without including personal opinions

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notably Aaron Hernandez, Ray Rice, and Adrian Peterson. The paper does not, however, maintain a database of all the great things that NFL players do off the field. Good Samaritan Even when a NFL player does some- thing truly heroic, the good news is met with skepticism. Heading into the 2015 AFC Championship Game between Denver and New England, USA Today ran a story on the front

page about Patriots linebacker Darius Fleming, who had played the previous week with 22 stitches in his leg. He needed the stitches after kicking in the win- dow of a smoking, wrecked car and pulling a woman to safety. Instead of celebrating Fleming’s courage, the USA Today story focused on the fact that there were no initial police reports of the incident, and, there- fore, Fleming may not be telling the truth. The local

In the harsh spotlight of the

media, even being a “good guy” like Darius Fleming can lead to negative press.

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police did issue a statement that a Good Samaritan had helped a woman from a car wreck. However, be- cause Fleming wasn’t specifically identified, the story questioned Fleming’s account. Fleming posted on his official Twitter account @dfleming58: “People are quick to try and bring you down…so sad.” In fact, stories on the hundreds of NFL players doing exemplary things are generally relegated to social media and team websites. There are roughly 1,900 players who take the field for NFL teams each season, and there has been an average of 54 arrests of NFL players per year. That means just fewer than three percent of all play- ers are getting into pretty serious trouble. According to FBI statistics, there were an es- timated 13 million arrests in the United States in 2010 (the most recent national figures available). With more than 300 million people in the country, the arrest rate is a little more than four percent. Taken in that light, it might seem as if NFL players are merely reflective of the rest of society. Yet anything bad they do receives banner coverage. And even with that,

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television ratings and interest for the NFL continue to increase every year. It is America’s Game, and its impact on society is powerful. And that points to one reason why so many people care so much about what NFL players do off the field: They are seen as more than just people—they are athletes in the spotlight, for good and bad. So when they make bad choices, they face consequences far beyond those faced by “regular” people. Should they know that and accept it when they sign on as pro football players? Does that make coverage of their misdeeds fair, too? And why is there is so much bad and so little good in the media coverage of the NFL? The answers aren’t simple. The Role of the Media The media certainly assumes a large portion of the blame. The players, teams, and league offices are held to a higher standard. And, yes, they do struggle to maintain that role at times. Then, the unending news appetite of NFL fans in the digital age of jour- nalism only magnifies everything.

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In Thomas Carlyle’s 1841 book, On Heroes and Hero Worship , he labeled the media the Fourth Estate, describing how journalism acted as a fourth branch of gov- ernment. He said its job

was to hold politicians accountable and inform citi- zens of issues that matter. The press was founded on basic principles of reporting facts objectively . However, as journalism grew to be more of a moneymaking business, the tactics of reporting changed. In the late 1800s, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer battled for readers in New York by sensationalizing the news. This sensationalism gave birth to the term “Yellow Journalism.” Many people re- acted negatively to this trend, but others enjoyed it no end. Large-size newspapers called tabloids filled their pages with exaggerated stories. Despite calls for more balance, the journalism moneymaking machine continued to grow, aided by

The judgment of what is news has changed over time, as has the practice of journalism.

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radio, and then the advent of television. The business is now more about television ratings, circulation , listenership, and ad- vertising dollars than taking time to thor- oughly research and report the facts. Psychology Today examined the

Should the NFL revise its policies about the media?

news in an article titled, “If It Bleeds, It Leads: Un- derstanding Fear-Based Media.” The article stated, “Fear-based news stories prey on the anxieties we all have and then hold us hostage…The success of fear-based news relies on presenting dramatic anec- dotes in place of scientific evidence, promoting iso- lated events as trends, depicting categories of people as dangerous, and replacing optimism with fatalistic thinking.” With this in mind, the feature concluded that ex- posure to fear-based news causes people to feel that their neighborhoods and communities are unsafe, to believe that crime rates are rising, to overestimate their odds of becoming a victim, and to consider the world a dangerous place. Those things may or may not be completely true, but people come to believe

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they are…because they “read all about it.” A similar thing happens with NFL coverage. Yes, some players clearly do bad things. But is it fair to say all NFL play- ers are bad because a few are?

The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall

The NFL dominates the American cultural landscape more than any other form of entertainment. Billions of dollars are given to the NFL for the rights to televise the games. Billions of dollars are spent every year on merchandise and fantasy football leagues. The massive

Why does the NFL get so much

attention? Because so many people love the game.

amount of attention has placed players and owners directly in the spotlight. Their ex- ploits on the field and their business success off it have given them a position of influence previously reserved for

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parents and clergy. Whether they like it or not, they are among the world’s biggest role models and heroes. With that standing comes high expectations for behav- ior. And most athletes live up to those expectations. For ex- ample, studies have shown that thousands of men abuse or kill their partners each year. Among the nearly 2,000 NFL players in a given year, only a

tiny fraction shows up in these stats. However, after the media devotes special sections and thousands of pages of news coverage to that tiny fraction, every NFL player is tarred with the same brush. The sta- tistically rare examples of NFL players get more at- tention than the millions of average citizens abusing cocaine and heroin every day. Is that fair to the play- ers? Or should they be held, somehow, to a higher standard?

The numbers say that NFL players are about average in terms of crime, but the general feeling is that they are not living up to their jobs as role models.

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