The sports story of the day is former NFL Defensive Lineman Ray McDonald getting arrested for domestic abuse and child endangerment. This is his third arrest in nine months, and we can all safely assume that he’s one God awful human being. Shortly after the news broke, the Chicago Bears released him, so therefore one of their biggest signings this off-season is now a complete bust who will never play a down for the team.
Bears personnel released McDonald while still out of town on the holiday weekend; they did not wait until returning to the off. The player entered the agreement with the team aware that any malfeasance would result in immediate dismissal.
He likely won’t play in the NFL ever again. Bears OL Kyle Long said it best when he Tweeted “good riddance.”
It was obviously the right move on the part of the Bears, but the more important question is why was he even there to begin with?
McDonald, repugnant human being that he is, is just a symptom. The Bears, questionably run organization that they are, also comprise nothing more symptoms of a larger disease within the league. The question is when will you, me, other Americans, when will we have had “enough?”
Sports fandom is like a deep, long-term, committed inter-personal relationship.
Loyalty matters as much as anything.
However, there’s a fine line between loyalty and being played for a sap. Loyalty to a fault will keep a person in a relationship where the other human being is exploiting and/or abusing them. The same can be said for sports fans and their teams.
Right now, the Chicago Bears, and the rest of the NFL are in a toxic relationship with their fans. When it comes to making a roster in this league, anything goes. Character does not matter, as long as you can play.
Jameis Winston went #1 overall in the NFL Draft.
The NFL will still take your money. https://t.co/xNkKE5L47T pic.twitter.com/zHQntTjLBu
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) May 25, 2015
Ray Lewis is still lionized today.
Aaron Hernandez. Ray Rice. Greg Hardy. Adrian Peterson. The late 1990s Cincinnati Bengals. The Early 1990s Dallas Cowboys…etc. etc. etc.
I’m not saying anyone is going to stop caring about the NFL any time soon. It’s so popular that it’s only the sport above “niche” status.
As long as there’s fantasy football and gambling, people will always be glued to the television come Sundays in autumn.
However, it seems we’ll stop legitimately caring, or having fond emotion, for a league that lets everyone in, regardless of their criminal behavior.
Worse yet, the Bears, and the NFL at large, only cast such criminal figures aside when their recidivist tendencies become too extreme to sweep under the rug anymore.
The current reigning NFL champions cheated to get where they are. Yes, DeflateGate is a very dumb story that received 20 bazillion times more press coverage than it deserved. And yes, deflating footballs won’t make the Indianapolis Colts surrender 900 yards rushing, or whatever it was, in the AFC Title game.
However, cheating is still cheating. When LaDanian Tomlinson, in response to the Patriots Spygate saga in 2007, said “if you ain’t cheatin, you ain’t tryin,” he could have been speaking about the entire NFL.
I’m not saying you should feel guilty for watching it.
The NFL is very bad reality television at its very finest. It’s show business, and you should expect the performers in the NFL to be about as wholesome as a rock star at 3 a.m. in the midst of a post-concert bender.
Everyone will keep watching, but there likely won’t be anyone to genuinely root for. The product is still thrilling and exciting, at least aesthetically. Watching a perfectly thrown deep fade route connect 70 yards down the field will always be enjoyable; even if the men behind its execution are deplorable beings.
We’ll consume this product, but it will be difficult to have any warm fuzzy feelings towards it.
For all of us, there comes a point where it’s “enough.”
We have to emotionally check out.
A bad company that gives you bad experiences as a consumer means you stop using that product. As much as we glorify sports and attach our emotions to our teams, at the end of the day it’s still just a company. It’s an entertainment product.
I don't know the full story but if I'm Ray McDonald I wouldve went out of my way to never have any other domestic issues. End of his career
— Desmond Clark (@dezclark88) May 25, 2015
For me it happened with the Chicago Bears many years ago. And it had nothing to do with the fact that the team sucked. Like they suck now.
“Suck” being the most technical, journalistic terminology to be appropriately applied to this situation.
The Chicago Bears lost me as a consumer because every time I bought a ticket to a game, low class, drunken neanderthals ended up beating on each other in my section. It’s hard to be a fan when every time you wish to consume the product live, you’re 10 feet away from an assault and battery case.
If you can’t control your crowd, and your security team sucks at what they do, why should I buy a Chicago Bears game ticket? So this was my recreational reason to check out from my hometown NFL team.
Then there’s the professional reasons.
The Chicago Bears have a Nixonian relationship with the press. Their Media Relations philosophy is…well, I’m not the only one who jokes about referring to Bears PR as “Police Resistance.” And I’m one of the luckier ones. Other journalists have told me horror stories that make my experiences dealing with them seem warm and fuzzy.
And believe me, my experiences were terrible enough. It’s hard to be a fan of team when you know, firsthand, how their employees view your profession with condescending disdain.
But hey, they’re the dominant brand in this market, they’re the alpha dog team when it comes to media attention, so they can do whatever they want.
Just like the Bears can sign a two time loser domestic abuser this March if they want. Just like Roger Goodell can run a lawless league if he wants to.
They’ll still print money. People will still show up in droves.
However, the old adage about government and sausage (“if you like the taste, don’t find out how it’s made) applies to pro football now more than ever. Except we don’t have a choice, the sausage ingredients are made public everywhere in the information age. And those ingredients are more disgusting than we ever thought possible.
I’ll still be interested in the Chicago Bears, I’ll still write about the Chicago Bears, but whether they go 16-0 or 0-16, or anything in between, my emotions will remain the same.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
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