Wes Welker and the ‘rules are rules’ reality of the NFL
Welker did drugs, but the NFL is a drug dealer, pumping us full of countless beer and Viagra ads every Sunday. Alcohol as a drug is far worse than anything Josh Gordon smoked and if Roger Goodell can deny a battered football player the proven pain relief of some strains of marijuana how can he legitimately rake in cash for drugs that give old men boners?”
When Denver Broncos running back Mike Anderson got busted for having weed in his system in 2003, Adam Schefter, then with the Denver Post wrote a sanctimonious blurb about how he was disappointed in Anderson and condemned him for toking a little reefer. It was then, as it is now, none of a reporter’s business what an athlete does in his spare time, and to proselytize about it seems a bit out of place.
Rules are rules and if you knowingly violate them you should accept your punishment like an adult. But the head shaking and disapproving sighs by holier sports writers and twitter pundits is out of line. Mark Kizsla made the point in the Denver Post that these distractions may be having an impact on the team and while it seems intrusive to dictate what grown, tax-paying adults can and cannot do in the privacy of their own homes, it certainly isn’t beyond debate that it could affect the Broncos in a negative way.
But Wes Welker’s suspension for performance enhancing drugs is more talking out of both sides of the NFL’s mouth.
Who really knows how it ended up in Welker’s system. He’s proposing he was dosed. A real possibility and a and horrible, reprehensible act to do to an unsuspecting person but it does happen. Whether this is the case with Welker, we will never know. But it showed up in his drug screen and that’s all the NFL needs to know.
Is it bullshit? Of course it is. What Welker does in his free time is none of our business. But as stated, it is the rules. Bus drivers, heavy equipment operators and people whose jobs are important the safety of others should probably be drug tested. But no matter your profession, you shouldn’t come to work high/drunk (restaurant busboys are the exception) anyway. That’s my personal belief because I think you owe it to your employer to come to work as focused as possible. Trust me, people are slacking off at work as we speak, they don’t need weed to make it worse.
Welker and Josh Gordon got popped for something the average Joe does on a Wednesday night. Matt Prater wasn’t allowed to drink a perfectly legal beverage that’s endorsed by the NFL. Not fair, but it’s what the NFL has laid out in its conduct policy. But it may come as a shock to you that the NFL is rife with contradiction.
Get hurt playing a high stakes game and the only thing that can get you back on the field is a drug that is banned by the league you play for. Seems unfair but PEDs can heal an athlete quicker and extend his/her career if used to heal and not enhance. But the NFL isn’t hearing any of that. In Roger Goodell’s world, if you steal, you get your hand cut off.
Welker did drugs, but the NFL is a drug dealer, pumping us full of countless beer and Viagra ads every Sunday. Alcohol as a drug is far worse than anything Josh Gordon smoked and if Roger Goodell can deny a battered football player the proven pain relief of some strains of marijuana how can he legitimately rake in cash for drugs that give old men boners? Painkillers are rampant in the NFL because all that matters is that a player gets back on the field and performs in our modern gladiator arena. Those drugs cause more long term health problems than pot so how can one drug be more acceptable than the other?
Rules are rules, but these rules are wrong. And it’s disturbing and hypocritical to be involved in these players lives this way. Personal choice is severely limited for these highly paid professionals and it’s amazing how much we let it go simply because we feel they are working for us and our favorite teams. If the NFL policies were implemented across the board in every work place in America, there would be blood in the streets. Yet when it’s dumb meat heads killing themselves for our entertainment, the rest of America whistles past the graveyard and hopes no one looks our way as we do the very same thing.
