With the hysteria surrounding whatever the latest off-the-field issue is in the NFL, it is refreshing to hear the thoughts of someone who can step back and look at how the various incidents have been resolved and analyze things from a meta-level.
"Too many times, I'd say especially over the last few years, a punishment's been handed down and nobody has really seen the evidence except for those in the league office -- supposedly," Brees said. "So decisions were made in kind of a, 'Hey, trust us.' But did the public see any of the facts? Did the accused see any of the facts? In most cases, no."
America loves a good criminal trial (Casey Anthony, George Zimmerman) as much as it loves a good off-the-field controversy like say, Bountygate or the Ray Rice assault; but strangely very little is made about how differently these situations are handled. Beyond the question of justice--whether or not the defendant is guilty and will be punished for his crimes--Americans seem to enjoy the process of the legal system as well. And as Brees' comment implies, the process itself is important in determining justice is meted. Echoing Brees, teammate and Saints union rep Zach Strief says:
"So there needs to be a system of checks and balances in place, and I think there needs to be transparency in how that all goes down. I'm tired of this veil of secrecy behind it. You get stuck in a situation where nobody has a clue what's going on, you deal with assumptions, and it's a circus."
Both Brees and Strief are intelligent guys who graduated from solid academic institutions (Brees-Purdue, Strief-Northwestern). It isn't surprising they've seen the disconnect between classical American jurisprudence and the authoritarian NFL. An intriguing question is why hasn't the media?
With this question, Sports with a View is launched in order to provide thoughtful commentary to an irrational sports landscape.
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