NFL Podcast

NFL stars like Antonio Brown have been involved in unethical and criminal activities, such as domestic violence and assault. This raises questions about the bad representation of the NFL and whether it sets a negative image of America. Many children look up to athletes as role models, so when they see their favorite players engaging in bad behavior, it can influence them to do the same. The NFL often gives players a second chance, even after committing serious crimes, which sends a message that money is more important than accountability. Violence against women is a major issue in the NFL, but only a small percentage of players are accused in this department. The NFL prioritizes money over punishing players for their actions. Contracts have clauses that can result in players losing their money if they do not abide by the set rules. Overall, there is a concern about the NFL's handling of player misconduct and the negative impact it has on society. Hello, hello, and welcome to my first episode on my channel, The Public Eye. My name is Hunter Mayes, and today we're going to talk about NFL stars and losing their shine. Do you enjoy watching football? Do you enjoy keeping up with your favorite players? Do you idolize an NFL player to look up to? So let's see. If you have answered yes to any of these things, how many of you have watched a player strip his uniform and walk off the field? You all know who I'm talking about. Our favorite Antonio Brown. Along with him and many other players, there have been many unethical and mind-blowing things they and the league have done in the NFL. If you're any kind of NFL fanatic like I am, you know what I'm talking about. Stuff like domestic violence, assault, drunk driving, dog fighting. The crazy part is most of you guys can match players up to those criminal topics without me even telling you. So today I'm trying to dive deep in and find out from you guys, do these immoral actions create a bad depiction of the NFL? Following up with more of a general question, does the NFL set a bad rendition on America to the rest of the world itself? So we're going to look at these players and the league's decisions and every instance that went wrong. I'm sure you guys can name a lot. So let's see how many NFL players gave away their million dollar salaries and how many got a second chance when they shouldn't have. I'm going to begin here with Henry Kaiser. He shares some pretty important things. He's a statistics journalist. He has collected data to see how parents and their kids look up to famous people. He shares that he talks about role models for kids and about 73% of kids look up to athletes as like their person to like kind of look at. They find lots of motivation by these athletes to do things in their daily lives, whether it's sports, whether it's just doing school. They just look up to them for things that they do. I had someone in my life like that, a famous athlete, his name is Peyton Manning. I'm sure you guys know who he is, quarterback of the Colts, quarterback of the Broncos. He's a very family man. He's very cherishable. He is such a very genuine human being. I had him all over my room with fatheads stuck up to my wall. I watched his every game. I watched a bunch of things that he does. I still watch him to this day. He has his own show now. If Peyton Manning did anything wrong, like a crime, I don't know. I think I might lose my mind if I ever hear that kind of stuff happen with him. Kaiser kind of goes in. He shows the negative effects on what the player's bad actions have on kids, sort of relaying on other information. When the athletes do negative things, it sort of correlates to kids in their heads. It makes them more prone to doing bad things in their life because they're looking at their favorite player, this grown-up, this grown man, and they're like, well, he's doing these things and getting away with it. Why can't I? Kaiser kind of shows the actions of players. About 73% of children look up to their favorite player. He's saying that lots of kids look up to those athletes as role models in their lives, as I said. So for one to act violently can taint a child's mind because they're looking up to these players as their role models. In fact, they're a big part of their lives. I also found this thing from Zoey Kuzbari. She's a sports editor of the Oberlin Review. She shares the story of Deshaun Watson and his sex-allegation crimes. She said there's 24 women that were his masseuses, and he had incidents with all of them. Two of them are unsolved in court. But for that, the NFL, he's only serving an 11-game suspension for that, even though they're not all closed yet. That's crazy to me because they gave him a second chance. She shares something sort of called a time-out theory where they let the players set out a couple games, and yeah, it'll all be good after that because, you know, the players make that money, so they can't be out too long, you know what I'm saying? But she also goes into talking about how many players, including Deshaun Watson, they get a second chance after committing these crimes. Like I was talking about the time-out theory, once they do something bad, you know, they get reimbursed for it, you know, because that's like a normal thing, even though if a normal human being were to do this stuff, you know what would happen to them, you know, a couple years in jail time, you know, no bail, but no, not them, not NFL stars that make money, you know? That second chance topic really stands out to me, whereas I'm speaking and pulling much information of these second chance theories, because they're just too good to get rid of, apparently, the players, even after sexually assaulting women. Other sources I have found also share second chances in many players, which leads me to believe the NFL doesn't really care, like, what their players do, you know, as long as they're good at playing, because my share is a really interesting thought. The manager of the Browns, the NFL led him to think that it was all right to give Watson and Kareem Hunt a second chance after assaulting women. Basically, she's saying the NFL brainwashes coaches and managers to think the way they do of the second chances. She's saying that even if they have committed a crime, they're good at what they do, so like, they make money for both. To me, this is like really giving a bad depiction of the NFL, and I don't know what you guys think, but to me, it's just not a good look, because why would you gift these players sometimes even more money for the criminal actions that they do? It's just not, like, just a flat. Some really good things, I found this science and researcher and writer at the University of Arkansas. His name is Matt McGowan. He interviews a professor of human development named Jacqueline Wiersma-Moseley, and she talks about her thoughts of violence in the NFL. She's a lover of football, but absolutely despises the players that inflict violence towards women. To kind of like relate Zoe Kuzbari about the Deshaun Watson sex allegations towards women, they're kind of like in the same realm, because that's kind of what she hates and what she's talking about. She finds a lot of statistics of violence outside the game, accompanied by one of her students doing research with her. Her and her student kind of goal is to have these crimes broadcasted more, so like they will end. Like more on the news, because they don't really broadcast this stuff, because the NFL sort of like, I don't know what they do, pay them off or tell them not to, because like they want to keep making money, and they're just kind of what, like a big part of America and what we stand for today. Her goal is to like have them broadcasted, obviously, so like just so they'll end. She says that violence is big on women in the NFL. It's one of the major things that they do. She kind of gives me information to help show examples of the violence, such as she finds statistics with her student. She finds that only about 24% of the players, of the 176 players that had incidents, she found only 24% of them were accused for the women department, but she finds most are just like normal crimes, such as like drugs and stuff. That was really surprising to me and her, because she thought that most criminal acts in the NFL by the players were towards women, but it surprised me and her, because it's more of the normal stuff than the other criminal activities that are punished for in the NFL. It's not mostly women, like she thought in her studies. It's just crazy. She finds that so many people did different incidents, like drunk driving and stuff like that, and it's just crazy to think that they're getting reprimanded for this kind of stuff. I also found, she found that one in three women experience violence in the world, and that's crazy, because that's one third. That's one out of every three women has experienced violence. The NFL just doesn't want to lose their good players. So what if they act violent towards women? The NFL is going to let them back if they're good at what they do and they make them money. The world is just full of money hoarders. We just, they're dogging these people for money. Whatever makes them money, it's going to last, because money is like the most major key role in people's minds these days. I found a good thing, a good topic from Kelsey Farish. Also, she's a sports blogger that researches causes and effects of players' actions. She wrote a great article called From Stealing to Kneeling, What Do NFL Players' Contracts Say About Bad Behavior? She's talking about the NFL contracts and that there's sort of like a law, a written law assigned by a player to give them money, but they have like laws set for them or else they could lose the contract. She contributes the ideas on the contracts and how violence and different acts of players affect that contract that they have received. In this one paragraph, she spoke about that if a player does not respect the contract, they can be torn of the contract and lose what they had within the contract. You know, that's mainly going for the ones that don't play as well, because obviously the ones that are making money are getting second chances, like I explained to you guys. She's saying kind of like that once a player signs the agreement, they have committed to the laws that are like written in the thing and of that contract, which they cannot break or else they could get their contract taken away, which means no more money. And you know, we're America, nobody wants no money, so they're going to do whatever they can to keep that money, so you think. That's what I'm trying to get across, that what she's saying about contracts should abide to each and every player, not just the bad ones, not just the good ones, it should be each and every player, like the contract says. She gives sort of examples of Michael Vick and him dogfighting, yeah, that's crazy, right? Who would think he'd just throw all that money away to have dogs fight and kill each other and gambling? That's just all bad in one. You're cruel if you're an animal, part of animal cruelty. Why would you even do that? They're dogs. You play in the NFL, you don't need more money off of dogfighting and gambling. And why? That's one thing the NFL did good, after that happened, they stopped them, you know, because it's a dog, everyone loves dogs, but like other crimes, you know what, dogs are more important than other crimes, apparently, to the NFL, that's why we see a lot of these players still playing. Sort of kind of more morality clauses, it's just not moral to do these kind of things. Everyone knows the moral absolutism of this stuff, and we can all agree that these actions aren't justifiable, but, you know, the NFL doesn't care. Morality is sort of saying the rights to end contracts, the NFL has rights to do whatever they want, they just don't do the right thing, sometimes. A lot of times they do, a lot of times they don't, but when it comes to this kind of stuff, and giving the players second chances, it just sort of like makes bad on our country. It just doesn't look right, because NFL is the sport of our country. I'm sure you guys all knew that one. She also goes in to sort of talk on sponsors for the players. There's a player named Colin Kaepernick, I'm sure you guys all knew him, he knelt while the National Anthem was playing, and she says that he was one of the most hated players in 2014 when he did that, but since everything that was going on for racial movements and national movements, Nike pulled him in and made him their sponsor, and he made Nike their sponsor. They took him and made it a great thing, when it probably shouldn't have been, but the movements at that time were justifiable for his actions. They kept him in, Nike kept him in, but the NFL dropped him, because a player taking a knee during the National Anthem is way worse than drunk driving and stuff, and accidentally killing people, you know, it's just not justifiable. Nike and Adidas has a bunch of contracts and sponsors with these players, and they pull out way faster than the NFL does, because the sponsors seem like they don't care, they're more based on how the world sees them, and the NFL just hides it, because they're just money hoarders, in a way. Now some really good things that the PEN, Certified Newspaper Editorial shares, to sort of wrap things up, we're going to come back in here and talk about Antonio Brown. Oh, you guys all know Antonio Brown, you love him, you hate him, he's hilarious, he did things in the NFL that you would have never expected, he's a child man, if you would like to think about it that way. When he was on the Pittsburgh Steelers, he was there for longer than he was on any other team, he was crying for more money, even though he was the highest paid wide receiver in the NFL, it just wasn't enough for him, that's just how he is. On the Raiders, he cried about his helmet, and that he couldn't wear his own helmet. On the Patriots, he didn't really do anything that time, but the Patriots got a lot of backlash for having him on the team, because they know he's a child man baby, so they got rid of him, you know, something the NFL couldn't do. And then the Bucs took him after that, they said, I don't care about what these people say about our team, we want to win, so we'll give them money. But halfway through the season, a child man comes in to one of the games and he wasn't getting the playing time he wanted, so he tore off his jersey, threw down his helmet, and walked out of the NFL stadium shirtless and looking insane. The pen sort of said that it's like giving a child a candy bar after he's been crying and giving angst about cleaning his room. That's like a really great quote to sit next to Antonio Brown, I think that was hilarious when I read that, I honestly couldn't stop laughing. The pen, they analyzed actions of him, just sort of relating to kind of like the Sean Watson situation. Antonio Brown has been accused for many incidents, never accepted in court, but he's been accused and he's just, he's something else. He will be a face of the NFL for a long time, which is not a good thing, because a lot of people look at the NFL as like us and America itself. So they're going to have him be a sort of face for what we stand for, and I'm sure they don't like that, because it's losing them money, and you know how the NFL is with their money. Yeah, so that's just saying, like, giving second chances to players is huge in the NFL. They don't care what Antonio Brown's doing wrong, they don't care what these other players are doing wrong, they just want more money. And that fact, the NFL does everything money-wise based off their moves that they want. But this sort of like leads me to the question, how does the outside world look at us? How do these players affect the NFL? I think we pretty much dive deep into it. I don't know, there's just so many different things that we could learn from this. Thank you for tuning in, The Public Eye, and if you would like to listen to more about the crazy NFL and the crazy players they have in it, and different players on second chances, then I advise you to come back and listen to my next show. Thank you so much. My name is Hunter Mays, I hope you enjoyed.