BALZER'S NFL BLOG

Balzer’s Blog: Difficult times hit NFL

Howard Balzer

September 20, 2014 at 12:34 am.

Adrian Peterson's future looks cloudy at the moment. (Bruce Kluckhohn-US PRESSWIRE)

The last few weeks have been difficult ones for the National Football League. There has been an avalanche of negative publicity over a few marquee players that hit right at the start of a new season.

When everyone wants to focus on football, attention is diverted to off-field stories that make everyone look bad and wind up taking players off the field while they are still being paid. That’s the ultimate irony.

Not surprisingly, opinions are varied.

Minnesota Vikings cornerback Captain Munnerlyn is one player that believes running back Adrian Peterson is being treated unfairly.

Munnerlyn said, “I think he should be able to play football. I really don’t get it. And at the end of the day I know they came up with the decision, but I really don’t get it.”

Munnerlyn noted that he experienced as a child the discipline that has landed Peterson in seriously hot water.

He added, “If Adrian wasn’t in the limelight I don’t think this would be coming up at all because you raise your kids how you raise your kids. I think Adrian is a great guy, great dude, great father, great football player, and I just think the way he’s been treated is unfair.

NFL teams were forced to make decisions on the fly. After Peterson’s case was made public Friday, Sept. 12, the Vikings immediately deactivated him for that weekend’s game. That story broke four days after the elevator video involving Ray Rice went viral.

The Panthers reacted to what the Vikings did by deactivating defensive end Greg Hardy, but both teams were planning to have them be at practice and play this past week.

That changed quickly after the negative reaction, and by the time practices began last week, both ended up with roster exemptions. Panthers coach Ron Rivera was revealing in his words to the media after Hardy was deactivated.

“I made a decision that I felt was best for everybody,” Rivera said. “There are a lot of distractions out there, and a lot of people being blamed for a lot of things they have nothing to do with. You know, there’s two ladies that work in this building and they answer the phone. And people call, and they get after them about decisions I make. They don’t deserve to have that. They’re people. They’re women. They’re mothers. They’re sisters. They’re grandmothers. And people call and want to complain.

“So I struggle with it. That makes it very hard on me. So when I have to make decisions, I make decisions that are in the best interests of this organization and don’t ever forget that.”

An emotional Rivera admitted that “the climate is changing,” mostly due to the public nature of the videos and photos of Peterson’s 4-year-old son being published in newspapers and online.

Rivera added, “This is not a normal set of circumstances or situations. When you get into these types of situations, you try to handle it the best you can. As I said on Sunday after the game, the biggest thing we have to understand is we’ve got to get this right. We really do.

“In all honesty, we’re worried about the wrong types of things. We’re trying to figure out who we need to blame. We don’t need to blame people, we need to find answers and corrections and make things right for people, and this is what this really should be about. I’ve been up and talked about this on and on and on, and I really just hope people understand we’re doing the best we can under the circumstances that we have and we’re trying to get this right. And at the end of the day, we have to come up with solutions to make sure that this does not happen again.”

Baltimore Ravens cornerback Cary Williams also had a somewhat unique take. He said of Ray Rice, “I know Ray and I know his character and I know he’s a great character guy. For him to make a mistake like that and be crucified, in my opinion, is terrible. But that’s the world we live in. It’s a shame that we have millions of people thinking they’re perfect. They live the great life. They’ve done nothing wrong.

“I understand that hitting a woman is very, very disrespectful and it’s something I wouldn’t want my daughter ever going through. But we have to also understand that people make mistakes. I’m not condoning anything he’s done. But I can’t cast a stone. I’m sinful. I’ve made mistakes.”

Often overlooked in the criticism of commissioner Roger Goodell is that the league didn’t even have a personal conduct policy until he created it after being hired as commissioner.

Every situation is different and Goodell has had to navigate it all while trying to be consistent. The reality is that there was no outcry in the past when numerous players were suspended one game for instances of domestic abuse, but, yes, the climate changed when a high-profile player such as Rice was involved and the videos surfaced of the incident.

It has been said that the subsequent harsher consequences Rice faced were the result of Goodell and the Ravens seeing the tape when in actuality everything changed when WE saw the tape.

At the end of the day, what will surely be the result is an even stricter policy, which, of course, had already been announced in late August.

But we also have to face the fact that, just as in the court system, sometimes the truth and what actually happened in some cases isn’t easy to discern. After all, there is rarely the visual evidence there was with Ray Rice.

Still, the onus is on the players to do the right thing. A huge majority of players do that on a daily basis, but it doesn’t make headlines. The bad decisions do, and that reality will never change.