The Hypocrisy of NFL Discipline

Below is a post from Lukewarm Jonah.

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Adam “Pacman” Jones has been arrested ten times.  He started a fight in a strip club by assaulting a stripper which left a bouncer paralyzed when he was shot by someone in Jones’ crew.  He was most recently arrested in January of 2017 for disorderly conduct, obstructing official business, assault, and a felony charge of harassment with a bodily substance.  He started nine games for the Cincinnati Bengals this previous season.

Kenny Britt has been arrested seven times.  In 2011 he lead police on a car chase in New Jersey.  He also has charges of resisting arrest, drug charges, and DUI.  He was also benched for being a negative influence on his teammates in Cleveland.  He is under contract with the New England Patriots for the upcoming season.

Greg Hardy was found guilty of assaulting a female and communicating threats in 2014.  He reportedly threw his ex-girlfriend into furniture, strangling her and threatening to kill her.  After he lost a bench trial he requested a trial by jury and the woman stopped cooperating with police.  The charges were eventually dropped.  Though he only played in one game in 2014, he collected his salary while not playing.  In 2015 he signed an 11 million dollar one year deal with the Dallas Cowboys.  He was suspended for four games that season.  In 2016 he was arrested for cocaine possession.  He just signed with the UFC.

2016 NFL Hall of Fame inductee Marvin Harrison was heavily implicated in a shooting in 2008.  A rare gun he owned was used in a shooting that hit two people at his car wash.  One of the people shot was someone Harrison had been fighting with minutes earlier named Dwight Dixon.  The other was an eye witness named Robert Nixon who was hit by accident and later named Harrison as the shooter.  In 2009 Dixon was murdered in front of a bar that Harrison owned.  His security cameras went blank for three minutes when the shooting happened.  It is alleged that Harrison’s cousin carried out the murder.

2018 NFL Hall of Fame Inductee Ray Lewis’ two friends allegedly stabbed and killed two other men.  Afterwards they hopped in a limo and took off with Lewis and others.  Lewis’ blood stained clothes he was wearing have never been found.  Witnesses initially reported Lewis was involved in the fight where two men were murdered, but changed their stories when the trial came around for some reason, possibly massive amounts of money.  I had to say allegedly earlier because Lewis’ two friends were eventually found not guilty for some reason, possibly massive amounts of money.  He played for 13 more years after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice.

Michael Vick pleaded guilty to federal felony dogfighting conspiracy in 2007.  He ran and financed a dog fighting organization.  It was reported he personally murdered dogs by hanging, electrocution and drowning.    After his release from prison he rejoined the NFL in 2009 and played seven more seasons, starting games every year.  Nike also resigned Vick to an endorsement deal in 2014.  In more humorous than dog murder charges, Vick also gave women herpes while using the name Ron Mexico.

Oakland Raiders cornerback Sean Smith was charged with felony assault for a vicious beating that caused permanent brain damage to the victim in August of 2017.  He played 14 games in the 2017 season.  He was sentenced after the season was over to one year in jail.

These are just some of the well known cases in the NFL’s recent history.  There were 37 arrests last year and 17 so far this year.  A piece of advice to NFL players, just make sure not to peacefully protest, then you might actually get in trouble.

Anderson Silva And The Art Of Showboating

When it comes to sports, I have a bias towards wrestlers. I loved Robert Quinn coming out of college, because he was a state champion high school wrestler. I loved Ray Lewis for the same reasons. I don't even know what level Deron Williams wrestled at before switching to basketball full-time, but I remember an announcer mentioning it while he was at Illinois, and I still support him, even though he has been rapidly declining. Never is this more true than in the UFC. In my mind, you need to have a wrestling background to be great, because without wrestling, you have no control of where the fight ends up.

I have always underrated Anderson Silva because of this. To be fair, he has gotten a ton better at wrestling, going from childlike to a poor wrestler. He's not going to shoot for takedowns, but his sprawl and underhook defense has gotten a ton better, and really, that's the only aspects of wrestling that Silva is going to need.

It's fair to say that my underrating Anderson Silva was a huge whiff on my sports predictions. It isn't the first, and won't be the last, but even though I have been wrong, it has been a blast watching him fight. Watching him strike from his feet is poetry in motion. It's so ridiculously smooth. There is nothing in this world that I can do as smoothly as he strikes, and that includes seducing the ladies. Win or lose this weekend, Silva's career is winding down, and we should appreciate all of the opportunities we have left, even if he is no longer in peak form.

My only proof that he may not be in peak form is that he is 38 years-old. Outside of that, there isn't much video evidence to suggest he has lost a step. Yes, he lost his last fight, but he got caught while doing what Silva does, believing in his skills to the point where he feels comfortable making his opponent look bad.

We have all been taught that showboating is bad. In most cases, it is. The showboating itself is not bad, but so few athletes can be so great that they are able to back it up. Anderson Silva is one of those amazing athletes who actually benefits from showboating. He demoralizes his opponents and kills all confidence with his showboating. Outside of the first Chael Sonnen fight, he has made his opponents believe that he was better than them in every other fight he has been in. He stands there with his hands down and easily dodges all strikes that come his way. At this point, his opponent feels helpless, and it is amazing how the energy can drain from an opponent who doesn't know what to do. Anderson Silva is the water; his opponents are the helpless swimmer. The harder they work, the more dire their situation becomes.

Don't fool yourselves. Chris Weidman has looked like an absolute monster in all of his fights, but by the second round with Silva, he looked beat. He was putting his head down and charging in for shots like the world's slowest bull. Silva dismissed him, as he should have, because all visual evidence was pointing to him being done. That all changed when one of Silva's dips mistimed into a left hook from Weidman, and all of a sudden, Silva was human again.

Michael Jordan stuck his tongue out, shrugged his shoulders, and shot free throws with his eyes closed. He didn't do this because it helped his game; he did it because he could. And mentally, his opponents were defeated before the end of the first quarter. Silva is that sort of athlete. He has such a myth around himself that his opponents are fighting a mental battle before they enter the cage. The showboating just puts the nail in their mental coffin.

As I said before, Weidman has been a beast in all of his previous fights, and the one time he didn't look like a beast, against Silva, he still knocked his opponent out. If he comes in with proper cardio and has his wrestling working, it's going to take something special for Silva to win. At the same time, I can't shake the feeling that we are going to see that classic Anderson Silva performance of easily rolling away from shots while effortlessly peppering his opponents with pinpoint striking.

I don't know what is going to happen on Saturday, but I know it's going to be special. If I had to make a pick, I'm going with Weidman. I have underestimated Silva throughout his entire UFC career (I thought Rich Franklin would win BOTH times), so why stop now? But this time, I will admit, there is a little piece of me hoping that I'm wrong, because getting another opportunity to see that sort of greatness is something I don't want to miss out on.