New tragedy rocks NFL's regularly scheduled world
The games go on.
For the second straight weekend, tragedy rocked the regularly scheduled world of the NFL. It left families, friends, teammates and coaching staffs grieving over yet another senseless loss of life. It also left the league facing questions not only about efforts to safeguard players on the field but whether it's doing enough to help them stay out of harm's way once they step outside the white lines.
In the early-morning hours Saturday in Irving, Texas, 24-year-old Dallas Cowboys nose tackle Josh Brent got behind the wheel of his Mercedes alongside teammate Jerry Brown and sped off, the prelude to a one-car accident that would leave Brown dead at 25 and Brent sitting in jail facing a felony charge of intoxicated manslaughter.
All this happened little more than three years after Brent was sentenced to probation and 60 days in jail in a plea agreement following his drunken driving arrest while playing football at the University of Illinois, where he and Brown were teammates as well.
That it happened just a week after Kansas City linebacker Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend to death, then drove to the Chiefs' training facility and took his own life with the same gun, raised questions about the league's responsibility to the young men it empowers and enriches - in some cases, almost overnight.
"I don't know that anybody has the answer, to be honest. They're human beings, kids in most of the cases like this, and they're going to make mistakes," said Dan Reeves, who played seven years for the Cowboys before launching an NFL coaching career that included four stops over four decades.
"As a coach, you've got more than 50 players, if you count practice squad guys, that you're trying to keep an eye on. And both the league and the team invest an awful lot of time and money trying to educate them about the opportunities and pitfalls that are set out in front of them.
"But no matter what you do, some are going to believe the bad stuff will never happen to them. And teams spend so much time together, they become like families. It's easy to get lulled into thinking you know which ones need a pat on the back and which ones a kick in the behind. Yet this shows we don't always learn the real strengths and weaknesses of some until it's too late. Everybody deals with that knowledge in their own way.
"But if you're going to play," Reeves said finally. "I don't know any other way to honor that person than to play as hard as you can."
The emotional scene that roiled Kansas City in the wake of Belcher's murder-suicide a week earlier shifted to Cincinnati, where the Cowboys arrived Saturday night to complete preparations before Sunday's kickoff against the Bengals.
The team cut short its regular two-hour meeting and made sure counselors were on hand to speak to players afterward. But when owner Jerry Jones spoke with a Fox interviewer outside the locker room shortly before the game, his eyes were rimmed red and he spoke haltingly about Brown.
"Our team loved him. They certainly are conscious of him and want his family to know and have as much of them as they can give. At the same time," he added, "they know that one of the best things they can do for him and his memory is to come to the game today, is go out and play well."
How the NFL responds to this latest tragedy remains to be seen. Earlier this summer, cognizant of both the rising number of domestic violence and DUI incidents involving players, Commissioner Roger Goodell pledged to address both problems.
"We are going to do some things to combat this problem because some of the numbers on DUIs and domestic violence are going up and that disturbs me," he told CBS Sports. "When there's a pattern of mistakes, something has got to change."
In several important ways, player conduct has already improved significantly since Goodell took over from Paul Tagliabue.
In 2006, Goodell's first season, 68 players were arrested for crimes more severe than a traffic violation. Since then, arrests for crimes including domestic violence, drunken driving and gun possession are down 40 percent.
Yet, as Goodell noted, the number of incidents in the last year have climbed at an alarming rate - according to one study, 21 of the league's 32 teams had at least one player charged with domestic violence or sexual assault - and the tragedies involving players on successive weekends has already prompted accusations that the league isn't doing nearly enough.
On Saturday in Kansas City, a dozen members of the Chiefs' organization attended a memorial service for Kasandra Perkins. Among them was general manager Scott Pioli, whom Belcher spoke with in the parking lot of the Chiefs facility to thank before turning the gun on himself. A day later, just as the Chiefs did against the Panthers last Sunday, the Cowboys rallied to win their game against the Bengals.
The team has already canceled its annual Christmas party, scheduled for Monday at Cowboys Stadium, and instead began planning a memorial service for Brown.
"From here on, they're in uncharted waters," Reeves said. "No one can point the best way forward. I was lucky in that sense: We never had to deal with the nightmare of losing a friend and teammate. One thing I'm certain of, though - it's going to haunt some of them for a long time to come."
For the second straight weekend, tragedy rocked the regularly scheduled world of the NFL. It left families, friends, teammates and coaching staffs grieving over yet another senseless loss of life. It also left the league facing questions not only about efforts to safeguard players on the field but whether it's doing enough to help them stay out of harm's way once they step outside the white lines.
In the early-morning hours Saturday in Irving, Texas, 24-year-old Dallas Cowboys nose tackle Josh Brent got behind the wheel of his Mercedes alongside teammate Jerry Brown and sped off, the prelude to a one-car accident that would leave Brown dead at 25 and Brent sitting in jail facing a felony charge of intoxicated manslaughter.
All this happened little more than three years after Brent was sentenced to probation and 60 days in jail in a plea agreement following his drunken driving arrest while playing football at the University of Illinois, where he and Brown were teammates as well.
That it happened just a week after Kansas City linebacker Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend to death, then drove to the Chiefs' training facility and took his own life with the same gun, raised questions about the league's responsibility to the young men it empowers and enriches - in some cases, almost overnight.
"I don't know that anybody has the answer, to be honest. They're human beings, kids in most of the cases like this, and they're going to make mistakes," said Dan Reeves, who played seven years for the Cowboys before launching an NFL coaching career that included four stops over four decades.
"As a coach, you've got more than 50 players, if you count practice squad guys, that you're trying to keep an eye on. And both the league and the team invest an awful lot of time and money trying to educate them about the opportunities and pitfalls that are set out in front of them.
"But no matter what you do, some are going to believe the bad stuff will never happen to them. And teams spend so much time together, they become like families. It's easy to get lulled into thinking you know which ones need a pat on the back and which ones a kick in the behind. Yet this shows we don't always learn the real strengths and weaknesses of some until it's too late. Everybody deals with that knowledge in their own way.
"But if you're going to play," Reeves said finally. "I don't know any other way to honor that person than to play as hard as you can."
The emotional scene that roiled Kansas City in the wake of Belcher's murder-suicide a week earlier shifted to Cincinnati, where the Cowboys arrived Saturday night to complete preparations before Sunday's kickoff against the Bengals.
The team cut short its regular two-hour meeting and made sure counselors were on hand to speak to players afterward. But when owner Jerry Jones spoke with a Fox interviewer outside the locker room shortly before the game, his eyes were rimmed red and he spoke haltingly about Brown.
"Our team loved him. They certainly are conscious of him and want his family to know and have as much of them as they can give. At the same time," he added, "they know that one of the best things they can do for him and his memory is to come to the game today, is go out and play well."
How the NFL responds to this latest tragedy remains to be seen. Earlier this summer, cognizant of both the rising number of domestic violence and DUI incidents involving players, Commissioner Roger Goodell pledged to address both problems.
"We are going to do some things to combat this problem because some of the numbers on DUIs and domestic violence are going up and that disturbs me," he told CBS Sports. "When there's a pattern of mistakes, something has got to change."
In several important ways, player conduct has already improved significantly since Goodell took over from Paul Tagliabue.
In 2006, Goodell's first season, 68 players were arrested for crimes more severe than a traffic violation. Since then, arrests for crimes including domestic violence, drunken driving and gun possession are down 40 percent.
Yet, as Goodell noted, the number of incidents in the last year have climbed at an alarming rate - according to one study, 21 of the league's 32 teams had at least one player charged with domestic violence or sexual assault - and the tragedies involving players on successive weekends has already prompted accusations that the league isn't doing nearly enough.
On Saturday in Kansas City, a dozen members of the Chiefs' organization attended a memorial service for Kasandra Perkins. Among them was general manager Scott Pioli, whom Belcher spoke with in the parking lot of the Chiefs facility to thank before turning the gun on himself. A day later, just as the Chiefs did against the Panthers last Sunday, the Cowboys rallied to win their game against the Bengals.
The team has already canceled its annual Christmas party, scheduled for Monday at Cowboys Stadium, and instead began planning a memorial service for Brown.
"From here on, they're in uncharted waters," Reeves said. "No one can point the best way forward. I was lucky in that sense: We never had to deal with the nightmare of losing a friend and teammate. One thing I'm certain of, though - it's going to haunt some of them for a long time to come."
They're big boys, they know right from wrong. Â I am sure there is a lot of stress related to a game and a lifestyle that loves you when you are great and hates you when you are aren't so , but that is the name of the game. Â Just because you are a football hero doesn't mean that bad things can't happen to you. Â
I'm waiting for Boob Costas to weigh in on the new car control laws! "If he didn't have a car, this would not have happened." - yes, misspelled on purpose.
What the hell does everyone expect? These people are being pampered from their early college days on, then they get a ton of money thrown at them, the media and the public treats them like some sort of romanticized modern-age gladiator role-models and to some who are not really matured yet it goes to their heads.
Ok, WTF is it with NFL players acting like idiots lately?Look, I get that we as a society value and elevate athletes of their caliber. In many ways we're in awe of them and coddle them to a certain extent. And let's face it, I really do believe that an NFL running back gives more entertainment value over the course of his career than the current winner of American Idol. At least an athlete is famous for something, rather than a reality 'star' being famous for just being famous as in the Jersey Shore. Paris Hilton, or a Kardashian with their clothes on.
But at somepoint, these men have to start acting like full grown, moved-out-of-momma's-house men. Just because some of them make a lot of money [and there isn't one guy in the NFL that makes NBA or MLB money], doesn't give them lease to run around with a gun jammed down their waistband in the club, fight dogs, murder their girlfriends or kill friends in DUI's.
I'm seriously beginning to think that Goddell playing judge, jury, and executioner with these players isn't an entirely bad idea.
"It also left the league facing questions not only about efforts to safeguard players on the field but whether it's doing enough to help them stay out of harm's way once they step outside the white lines."
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You have got to be kidding. These are grown men, not 13-year-old boys. If they don't already know that it's not a great idea to drive drunk or beat your wife, I'm not sure it's the league's responsibility to teach them.
@anon4444 I agree with you to a large extent. But let's say something really terrible happens to a Seahawk. Does the team just give them over to the criminal justice system and let their trial wend it's leisurely way through the system or expedite the trial? Does the league let them stay under house arrest and not play in the playoffs? Things are a little stickier when you add in these details.
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But I heartily agree that many of these allegedly full-grown men need to own up to their misbehavior.
But old whatâs his name said that only guns kill people.... How did this happen.... Was the gun driving?? Did it run off after and not be seen??? OK now back to reality.. Society has elevated this people to the point that they are not responsible for themselves and cannot make good decisions when faced with tough choices. This is the results of that. Unfortunately he will now pay for a bad choice with the rest of his life (Jail and then too old to the only thing he is educated to do). They are just playing a game for the entertainment of people. Time to teach them some personal responsibility and hold them accountable for their actions both on and off the field.
This is what we get for elevating the NFL to a level absurdly out of whack to what it actually is. The duality of American culture is pathetic. We waste so much energy reconciling what actually happens in life with what we expect to happen in our delusional, alternate reality, as though we bear absolutely no responsibility for our outrageously self-aggrandizing expectations that reflect a shameful mix of greed, self-absorption, vanity and stupidity.
@wysoumible The public's elevation of the NFL is nothing compared to the misbehavior that we placidly accept from NBA players. After all, when was the last time an NFL or MLB player tried to choke his coach and kept his job [as in the Letrell Sprewell case]?
Let's hope Brent does some hard time instead of getting special consideration because he's a Pro football player. Yea........right.