Sports Ethics – What Needs to Change in Professional Football?

In a report issued by the Associated Press (June 26, 2013), details have emerged on the latest smear to affect professional football; first degree attempted murder charges against 23 year-old Ausar Walcott, a rookie signed by the Cleveland Browns.

The incident occurred outside of The Palace Gentlemen’s Club, after the club had closed, where Mr. Walcott got into an altercation with another patron. The patron, currently in critical condition, was punched in the head. Walcott is in jail and has been thrown off the team.

What caught my attention was the following quote from the article:

“His release came on (the) day after the AFC’s rookies visited the Browns’ facility as part of the NFL’s Rookie Symposium, four days of seminars and meetings designed to prepare the drafted first-year players for life as a professional – on and off the field.”

At the rookie symposium, former football players who were thrown out of the NFL (Maurice Clarett and Adam “Pacman” Jones) spoke to the rookies about staying on the proper course. Obviously, Mr. Walcott didn’t get the message; neither will several other players this season. I guarantee it.

Why It Isn’t Working

There is a myth, especially in regard to teaching about ethical behavior that we can only relate to people who are “like us.” Mr. Clarett, for example (I blogged about him about a week ago), threw away his fame and fortune on drugs, alcohol, poor choices and a bad attitude. He wound up in jail. He, like Walcott, is black, from poor means, and was an incredibly gifted athlete with a bright future. Fame and fortune awaited him and he turned his back on both.

There are approximately 1,700 men who get the blessing of playing professional football each year. Mr. Walcott was on track to be one of them. Why didn’t he get the Sports Ethics message?

For one thing, Mr. Clarett is on the road to rehabilitation. He is a minor media personality. He may never play football again, but he is now trying his hand at rugby and other sports and he is being given a podium to speak to young players – by the same organization (the NFL) that threw him out. The message almost becomes ho-hum; the consequences seem minor as the future for Mr. Clarett seems a bit brighter. I am in his corner 100 percent and, who knows, he may find himself on some type of playing field again, but he lacks the distance and understanding that Mr. Walcott needed most.

If Mr. Clarett were older perhaps; if he had the time to reflect on what he had done, and how it had altered the course of his life, he might have added a few additional sentences to his speech. If he had lost all of his friends, some family members and all his professional ties it might have resulted in him finding a word or an emotion he needed to find to reach Mr. Walcott.

However, just the fact that the NFL allows men like Clarett and Jones to speak to NFL rookies sends the message that: “Though you’re no longer on the playing field, you’re still part of the family on some level.” It’s a very dangerous message.

My feeling is that a 23 year old athlete talking to a 23 year old athlete about ethics makes as much sense as Bernie Madoff talking to 75 year old retirees about investing their life savings in a new fund he has formed.

What are not translating here are life skills.

I would never regain my old profession. I was never asked to speak in front of my old company and I was never welcomed back into the inner circle. I had to develop the life skills that would lead me to the wisdom that improper ethical actions led to terrible consequences.

Did I do something as heinous as critically injure another human being? No, the real injuries I inflicted, the most catastrophic of them all, were those I did to myself.

Walcott will most probably never play football again. His choices will haunt him forever.

I wonder, what could I have said to him? For starters, I might have begun with a simple truth: things will never be the same for you. You will spend many years forgiving yourself, and if you’re truly lucky, you may find a sense of peace in helping others.

There was no one, either inside or outside of that “Gentleman’s” club who would have ever wished that for you. Indeed, they will laugh at you when you fail. I, for one, feel nothing but sadness, but every choice has a consequence and that is an unmistakable truth.

The burning question seems to be – How do we get the attention of the players, coaches and others that Choice do have Consequences?