fenolitto

I find in my daily threads a couple common themes.  I think the one that is most pervasive is the feeling that the league is is trouble and Goodell needs to do something.  It wasn't all that long ago that the NFL players were paid a fair living wage and their "celebrity" was more about their athletic ability and love for the game.  The sad truth is that the NFL today is little more than a stage where the few talented enough get to prance around while getting paid millions of dollars and then having the guff to either complain about how unfairly they are being treated or in many cases do things that fly in the face of societys norms for behavior.  I know I'm only one voice here, but I have to imagine that there are others out there who agree.  I can no longer relate to these players.  In the past I felt a certain athletic kinship with the Sunday Warriors, but that has been long since removed.  Now I see a lot of overpaid complainers/dissenters and I can't relate to that.  As one of the millions of working class folks trying to make a living in this world, the spoiled brattitude is beginning to wear thin.  I have no issue with the majority of consument professionals who go out day after day week after week and play their hearts out for their teams.  But the rest of the whiners and lawbreakers (Pacman Jones, Cedrick Benson, Chris Henry, Odell Thurman.....etc.) are spoiling the reputation of this once proud league.  I draw hope from the Minnesota Vikings "boat incident" which was the straw that broke the camels back on personnel integrity in their organization.  The owners decided that it was time to put character first and talent second.  The Bengals are still suffering from the myriad of run ins with the law that by now has to have divided the locker room into the clean and the dirty.  I feel for Carson (and yes Chad to a degree) that they keep out of trouble and are part of an exceptionally talented team that's going nowhere because of all the "me first" players.  Cutting Henry and Thurman is the right direction, but I haven't seen a hack and slash followed by a "character first in Cinci" statement from the club.  I hear a LOT of talk from the NFL front office, but I keep seeing Goodell wilt in the face of overwhelming pressure from the players, agents, coaches and owners to re-instate players.  In my humble opinion the time has come for the league to take a hard line on some of these cases and make it clear that they intend on restoring the image of the NFL.  It may be too late to uphold the lifetime ban on Pacman for his repeated and flagrant mockery of the NFL standards and US laws, but don't worry Roger.  In a couple years Vick is going to come back and ask for reinstatement.  The easy answer is to let him back.  The harder position is to say no.