Sam Hurd Arrest: Stupid Athletes Continue to Sully Proud NFL Name
Published by Gabe Zaldivar on December 15, 2011
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
The NFL means a lot to many people. It’s an excuse to forget everyday problems and a chance to root with fellow neighbors that share the same interest. It has also become a league filled with criminals that threaten to destroy a once proud organization.
On Thursday, news broke that Sam Hurd had been arrested for dealing drugs. Judging by the amount and width of the alleged narcotics involved, Hurd may be painted as more of a drug kingpin than anything else.
With that much alleged product, you wonder how he had time to go over the playbook. The sad part is that there is nothing new or shocking in all this. And I think that is what struck a cord with me on Thursday morning when reports came flooding in.
ESPN reports extensively on the unfolding scandal hitting the Bears at the moment. From the thousands of words in that report, one thing pops up from the page, and it’s that this is not going to end well.
Yet this story is being buried under Chris Paul trades and Tim Tebow melodrama. It’s time to consider that we have become desensitized to crimes, as they affect our favorite athletes on our most beloved NFL teams.
We accept a few things about our sports, and for the most part, they are cute observations that can be filed under the label of harmless.
Baseball is boring and the NHL is irrelevant. The NBA is a sport that never calls half of their rules on stars. Traveling is now just a myth that someone claims they saw called once decades ago.
Something happened to the NFL on its way to becoming our favorite sport. It became infested with criminals and will one day serve to have most of us turn the channel for more benign fare on the TV.
This isn’t a new trend, relegated to the Hurds, Pacman Jones’ or Kenny Britts. This is a problem that has been around for years. But at least it was shocking back then.
Who can forget about Eugene Robinson, who was picked up for soliciting a prostitute right after receiving the Bart Starr award for fine moral character?
Fast forward to Thursday, when a receiver on a high-profile team is arrested for being an alleged drug dealer, a charge that very well could implicate a great many more NFL players.
Yet we all sit back and think, “that sounds about right.” The NFL will one day have its name sullied beyond repair. But I fear that has already happened.
The NFL is now the league of extraordinary criminals, and we are fine with that. None of this shocks or amazes us, and that is what troubles me the most.
Crime is just a way of life in the NFL. I guess I should make amends with that as well.
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