We’ve all seen the recent spate of NFL scandals: Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, Ray MacDonald and others. The National Football League is facing a behavior crisis large enough to merit an internal review and repeated apologies from the league commissioner, Roger Goodell. It’s clear that the NFL needs to do a better job of holding its players to a higher standard of conduct off the field, which should include a much harsher disciplinary stance on offenses like domestic abuse. But if I were only going to write about the NFL, I would be months late and rehashing old arguments. Even The Herald opinions section has given the issues coverage.
The conversation needs to focus on players in college and earlier. In many cases, college football players are being protected, led astray and given license to misbehave by universities, local law enforcement and local communities. It’s a tough conversation to have because there is so much at stake, but the misconduct in the NFL is the product of a larger system.
Where is this happening? I can’t say everywhere, but there are some damning examples. Florida State University is perhaps the most glaring example in the news right now. Last year, Jameis Winston, its star quarterback, was accused of rape. But the local prosecutor decided that he lacked sufficient evidence to charge Winston and criticized the police for their handling of the case. A New York Times article later reported that the investigation into the accusation was egregiously mismanaged. The local police took 34 days to identify Winston as the suspect, despite his being perhaps the most well-known student on campus. In the words of the local prosecutor William Meggs, “How long does it take to identify a freshman football player — about 10, 15, 16 seconds?” Police took an additional two weeks to contact him after identifying him as a suspect.
It was three weeks short of a year before the police made an attempt to contact a witness of the alleged rape for a statement. The Times also reported that, despite the FSU Athletic Department having knowledge of the investigation early on, Winston was allowed to play through the entire season and only asked to answer questions about the case after the final game of the season in January. This was the first story of several that have come out in the last year of the Tallahassee Police Department’s blatant favoritism of FSU players.
Earlier this month, another story broke about two FSU players who were involved in a car accident and immediately fled the scene on foot. After they were found and brought back to the scene of the accident nearly half an hour later, the driver, an FSU player, was only given minor traffic tickets: one for driving with a suspended license and the other for an improper left-hand turn. The initial report of a hit and run — a far more serious crime — was literally crossed out by local police after a 3:30 a.m. call to the FSU athletics department. Earlier this fall, two FSU players were accused of domestic abuse in separate incidents. Soon after the first was accused, the police report was changed to “domestic disturbance” — a far lesser crime — and the player was ultimately not charged. The second incident involved Karlos Williams, FSU’s top rusher, who, despite the pending police investigation, has received no punitive action from the athletics department. According to team officials, his status on the team is “under review,” but he has not missed any game time.
FSU is far from the only offender. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was recently investigated in a scandal in which athletes on many sports teams were taking classes that basically didn’t exist to keep themselves eligible to play. The University of Notre Dame was recently implicated in an academic cheating scandal involving its football players. Even high school teams have issues. Two years ago in Steubenville, Ohio, high school football players were accused and eventually found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl. During the investigation much of the local community supported the accused, including school and team officials — some of whom have now been charged with crimes for attempting to cover up the rape, and for obstruction of justice. The list goes on.
The NCAA makes nearly $1 billion each year, and successful college football teams like FSU can bring in up to $10 million in business to the local community every home game. Suspensions and injunctions for misbehavior could strain this, especially if they result in the removal of players from games. The NCAA has a motive to make its players look good.
But the rest of the problem is a mixture of pride, misguided loyalty and naivete. Everyone wants to cheer for their alma mater, but no one wants to root for a school whose star football player is accused of rape. Alums and fans alike don’t want to think that their star players are anything but innocent student-athletes working hard in the classroom and on the field. Big-name schools don’t want their names or reputations tarnished.
Athletes must deal with a high level of scrutiny and media attention. Look at the recent sexual assault accusations against Brown’s own football players — nearly every headline started with “Brown football players,” never just “students” or even “Brown students.” But as an athlete myself, I recognize that participation in collegiate athletics is a privilege, not a right, and we’re responsible for higher standards of conduct — in part because we are a public face of the university in a way that few students are.
It’s also important to recognize that football players are not the only athletes who have off-field issues. To imply that would let all other athletes off the hook. But it seems football teams are often the target of these types of accusations, while other sports make the news far less frequently.
It’s clear that giving NFL players license for raucous and illegal behavior off the field starts in college or before. By the time players reach the NFL, they have been getting away with crimes and misdemeanors large and small for years. Police and universities across the country need to do a better job of holding football players and all athletes accountable for their actions off the field. If universities let their athletes act above their rules and the law, how long will it be before athletes believe the rules no longer apply to them?
Walker Mills ’15 is a captain of the Brown men’s rowing team. He’d be happy to continue the conversation at
walker_mills@brown.edu.
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