An NFL Star Lives A Normal Life Today

For those of you who read my last article will know that I did my best to capture the current state of the NFL and it's domestic abuse problem.  Since that article, we have learned that Adrian Peterson abused his son with a switch, Jonathan Dwyer physically assaulted his wife and son, and the Carolina Panthers deactivated Greg Hardy hours before their Week 2 game.  The NFL hit an all-time low over the last two weeks and it's really hard to watch.  I feel bad for the NFL because they are a victim of their own doing.  Long have the days gone where the NFL would be able to brush issues like these under the proverbial rug.

Despite all of these gut-wrenching stories, the NFL will continue to play games and the players will continue to live normal lives.  The average NFL player does not commit domestic violence but, rather unfairly, a new persona has been cast upon these players because of a few misguided individuals.  I continually analogize this situation to priests and Muslims.  Not every priest is a pedophile (in fact most of them are perfectly normal human beings) and not every Muslim is a terrorist (in fact many Muslims are very humble, down to earth people).  But because of the public's perception of a few individuals, the rest of the group is stereotyped unjustly.

NFL players past and present have gone on to be great humanitarians.  Troy Polamalu is widely regarded throughout the NFL as a socially conscious individual who is a human being first and a football player second.  In Pittsburgh, he is seen as the NFL-version of Roberto Clemente.  Troy is always one of the first people to be interviewed when events like this occur.  He was quoted as saying in regards to Ray Rice "I have my own struggles. And, obviously, he's got his own struggles. And we all have our own struggles. So, I can't look past my own struggles to judge him."  Most people, myself included, were thinking "What issues does Polamalu have that can even come close to Ray Rice?"  But the more I thought about it, the more I started to understand what he meant.  Who are we to judge Ray Rice for what happened that night?  Who are we to label him as a villain or a terrible person or even a criminal?  We should really focus on who were as people and not worry so much about what other people do.  That's why we have judges and juries.  I guess more colloquially, Troy is saying "People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."

If I leave you with nothing else from this article, I want you take away that for every name you hear in the coming days, weeks, and months that will be arrested for various crimes, just remember that there are hundreds of players in the NFL who will live very normal lives that we will never hear about.