Pros and Cons (26 page)

A
fter compiling data on the racial composition of the criminals in the NFL, the authors consulted with a number of individuals who provided diverse perspectives and analysis. They include: Rev. Jesse Jackson; William Bennett; Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy, author of
Race, Crime, and the Law;
Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page, former Minnesota Viking and a member of the NFL’s Hall of Fame; and former East St. Louis high school football coach Bob Shannon, who coached a number of players who are now in the NFL. The authors also supplied all of their statistics to Carnegie Mellon Professor Alfred Blumstein, the nation’s most renowned expert on crime statistics analysis. His steering was particularly helpful. It should also be noted that Justice Page, due to his position as a sitting justice on a state supreme court, provided helpful perspective but is prohibited from expressing opinions for attribution.

Each of those interviewed by the authors warned of the risks associated with doing this kind of research. “There is a deep association of criminality and blackness in American culture,” explained Randall Kennedy, pointing out the misconceptions that could be drawn from learning that a substantial number of the criminals in the NFL are black. “The demographics of criminality have historically been used against black people. And it has been the case that people have used the nether side of activities engaged in by black Americans to stigmatize black Americans as a group.”

While expressing caution, none of those who were interviewed discouraged a thorough and truthful investigation into the topic, despite not knowing how the results might turn out. Why? Because, as each of them said, truth provides the best weapon against stereotyping. “The fact of the matter is when these press reports [of athletes committing crimes] come down month by month by month, people are not stupid,” said Kennedy, who is black. “If you’re reading the newspaper and you have the pictures of athletes involved, it is not as if people don’t draw dots. It’s not as if you have to bring it to people’s attention that the substantial number of athletes involved in serious criminal affairs are athletes of color. People read and know about these things. The options are to run away from this issue and leave the subject open to prejudice and stereotyping or educate people and give them a well-rounded understanding of what is going on here.

“It is a disturbing subject,” Kennedy continued. “But researchers should not be inhibited in investigating a subject because it seems some people are going to be made uncomfortable by it.”

William Bennett echoed these sentiments, adding that athletes’ visibility in society required a more honest examination of these questions. “You have to look at this with straight eyes,” said Bennett. “True, NFL players are disproportionately black. But they are also disproportionately heroes. Any person big enough to be a hero is big enough to have the truth told about him. If they are going to be such omnipresent figures in the lives of young people, we have to ask these questions, no matter how unpleasant the answers.”

T
o examine this issue from a statistical standpoint, it is first necessary to look at the racial composition of the NFL. Over the past three seasons (from 1996 to 1998) the percentage of players in the league who are black has ranged between 67 and 71 percent. Of the 509 players whose criminal histories were researched by the authors, 78 percent of them were black, 18 percent were white, 2 percent were of other races, and 1 percent of the players were unidentifiable in terms of racial composition due to incompleteness of the public record.

The research revealed that of the 109 players who were found to have a serious criminal history, 96 (or 88 percent) were black, 8 (7 percent) were white, 2 (nearly 2 percent) were of other races, and 3 were unknown. The tendency here is to want to focus exclusively on the glaring discrepancy between the percentage of black players who had a record and white players who had a record. Without considering other factors, this produces very misleading conclusions.

For example, while blacks represented 88 percent of the players who had been arrested, they also compromised 72 percent of the survey population. The authors turned their findings over to Professor Blumstein and asked him to compare arrest rates for black players in the NFL to black males in the general population. Based solely on racial comparisons (in other words, no account was taken here for income, education obtained, background, and so forth), Blumstein determined that blacks in the NFL are arrested at rates
lower
than black males in the general population. (See
Appendix I
for a more detailed explanation of how Blumstein compared the authors’ arrest rates for NFL players to the national arrest rates for blacks and whites.)

More important, since 368 of the 509 players in the survey were black and only ninety-six of the black players were charged with a serious crime, that indicates that the vast majority of black players were found
not
to have a criminal record. Put another way, the majority of the law-abiding citizens in the league are black, a point of paramount importance that seldom if ever gets emphasized. “What’s extraordinary is that there’s an awful lot of men who came from dysfunctional backgrounds who are doing quite well and who have made a great deal out of their lives,” observed William Bennett after reviewing the research. “And they are disproportionately black. That is a very positive thing.”

The bottom line here is that there is no basis for framing the issue surrounding criminals in the NFL as a race issue. It is a
crime
issue. NFL players who are committing crimes are not being singled out because they are black, but rather simply because they are criminals. Since an overwhelming majority of the players in the league are black, they naturally make up a large percentage of the players who run afoul of the law. If the NFL were truly concerned about cutting down negative racial stereotyping in this area, it would simply rid itself of criminal players. This would not only cut down on the misleading images that get promoted through the media, but it would largely do away with the league’s public relations problems associated with criminal conduct. Yet the league would rather ignore that teams are employing criminals, as long as they play well enough.

“Crime is not a function of race,” pointed out Jesse Jackson. “Crime is the function of sociology and psychology, your environment, and your mind-set.” While race does not cause people to commit crime, the absence of any real consequences does.

As mentioned in Chapter 1, conventional wisdom suggests that giving players who have been in trouble with the law an opportunity to obtain a degree and earn a very healthy living would diminish criminality. The authors’ research showed, however, that of the 109 players with an arrest record, seventy-seven (70 percent) of them were arrested
after
joining the NFL. This appears to cut against the popular belief that sports participation reduces poor behavior, instills character, and promotes self-discipline. However, it must be remembered that sports at the professional level provides a license to act in ways otherwise viewed as socially unacceptable. A pro contract can act as an exemption clause, a free pass from responsibility for one’s actions.

This change can largely be attributed to the professional sports leagues’ willingness to employ criminals. In the quest for talent, they have lowered the bar. This is not to say that professional sports teams and leagues should simply punish and cast aside athletes who commit crimes. But the long-term result of near total absolution from responsibility for behavior that would not be tolerated in any other profession provides the root for this problem. “If people are committing crimes, who are they committing crimes against?” Professor Kennedy asked rhetorically. “Some of the most poignant cases have involved these players who are batterers. Immediately, there is this call for redemption—we’ve got to protect these young men. Well, what happened to the women? The guy, a thousand arms embrace him. The woman is sort of left hanging out there. She’s the villain after she’s been wacked around a couple of times.”

The willingness on the part of NFL teams to repeatedly embrace criminally violent athletes raises this question: Are the second chances an act of genuine concern for the welfare of the troubled player?

“By and large, we are seeing the end result of a long line of exploitation,” explained Jesse Jackson, who played college football. “Men being used who come out of very desperate straits, having extraordinary, exploitable, commercial talent. They are put on a pedestal in high school, removed from the earth and its responsibilities. Then they are recruited by the top colleges. Students who score 1200 on the SAT and make straight As can’t get in, yet some of the athletes get in with lower scores and study less difficult subject matter because they are actually working [for the universities]. These guys have been exploited from the time it was obvious they could jump higher and run faster. Athletes of stature don’t walk on the ground and are allowed to play by different rules. Once their use is gone, they are no longer protected. But while they are playing ball, much of their behavior is cushioned. They are insulated from regular rules, attending classes, adhering to regular socializing processes.

“Those who are the most commercially exploitable are taught to live with the least amount of social responsibility,” Jackson said. “But when they are no longer playing, these players often crash. There is a 75 percent divorce rate. Guys who made all kinds of money can’t get a job. Drugs and liquor become anesthesia for their pain and some get caught selling it.”

As Rev. Jackson pointed out, these after-career problems are not unique to black players. Nor is the crime problem. There are, however, reasonable explanations for why black players being drafted by NFL teams are, in some cases, particularly at risk for ending up in the headlines for the wrong reasons. “I see an unhealthy trend with some players,” said legendary high school football coach Bob Shannon, who coached his predominantly black East St. Louis team to six Illinois state championships. “There are guys who are not African-American who get into these problems, but for the most part there’s a trend that a lot of African-American players are getting caught up in. There’s a mentality where guys are brought up to disrespect law and order. When players of this mentality go through the recruiting process they learn that they can get away with things that others can’t get away with. By the time they make it to the NFL they feel very special. Just because these players suddenly find themselves with a lot of money doesn’t mean they will start respecting the law. Some of them have already crossed the line of criminal conduct before receiving that big contract. They’ve had a taste of doing wrong and getting away with it. Now it is twice as hard for them when people, like old friends, put pressure on them to engage in unlawful activity.”

Shannon has produced more than his share of NFL players. His accomplishments have even been chronicled in
Sports Illustrated
and captured in a full-length book. “Environment plays a tremendous role,” Shannon told the authors, explaining the roots of many ballplayers’ criminal tendencies. “When kids come out of an environment of poverty, gangs, and a lot of disrespect for the law, they learn a lot about ‘getting over.’ As early as elementary school they start coming in contact with petty crime and criminal thinking. Then they start getting recruited hard by gang members. They see people who are doing illegal things and seem to be thriving.

“It’s not that all inner city kids are bad,” Shannon continued. “But there are certain types of pressures on them that are not as widespread on other kids. There’s pressure on all kids, but inner city kids see adults who don’t have respect for the law and who have been living that criminal life for a long time. The African-American athletes are affected by this more because a lot of them come out of these bad situations.

“Kids who grow up in middle-class backgrounds are more likely to learn the value of work,” Shannon said. “They see both parents getting up each day and going off to work. And they learn that the things they have are a result of working. On the other hand, kids from the ghetto look around and see people who have things as a result of stealing or selling dope or some other method. When you have a man out there selling drugs and he’s standing by the fanciest car in the neighborhood, kids pick up on that.”

F
raming is incredibly important,” pointed out Randall Kennedy. “Things can only be framed after one has gathered a lot of information. This can’t simply be framed as a race issue off the bat without doing a lot of investigation. A lot of times what appears to be a race issue really isn’t. There are other variables which explain the situation much more than race. Our eyes go to race because we are very sensitive toward it. But there are other things going on that are actually the explanation. Race is not the explanation. It is a dependent variable as opposed to the independent animating variable.”

Rev. Jackson suggested that the NFL is hardly in a position to raise claims of racism, given its poor treatment of blacks during the league’s history. “There is a disproportionate number of blacks on the field,” Jackson said, “but the NFL properties display at Super Bowl time looks like a seventeenth-century textile show. There are these patterns of exclusion within the NFL. All the owners are white. Though blacks have offered to put up money to purchase teams, they can’t leverage money and stature to get in. If you look at the patterns of exclusion, who the owners are and who the banks lend to, that’s the pattern.

“You have all these blacks on the field generating crowds and entertainment. Blacks have moved in horizontally, but they can’t move up vertically. Blacks have gone from picking cotton balls to picking footballs, basketballs, and baseballs. What was bad about picking cotton was that you could not go beyond working at the raw material base. You could not turn cotton into textiles and go into the marketplace. Here, in pro sports, blacks are limited. They can’t go beyond the field vertically and get into the marketplace.