Vision Quest: Taylor Made For Trouble

It’s been two months since my last VQ article and the reason is that I just hate this time of year. The two months between the draft and training camp is just horrible for us football fans. Redskins.com tried to help us out a little. They gave us video of OTAs and mini-camps. And while the video was fun and entertaining it still didn’t spark enough interest in me to write about (although the Brittany video did inspire a pretty long thread on our favorite new cheerleader). Even Redskins.com ran out of material as the started to air a 6 part special on, I kid you not, the equipment manager.

So if I wanted to write any article it all, there was only one subject that I could of written about. Sean Taylor. And I just didn’t want to write about that. I love seeing what #36, err excuse me I mean #21, did on the field last year, but I can’t be the only one tired of his off the field antics. First there was the agent switching last year after the draft. Then he was unhappy with the contract he did sign. A DUI after a mid-week party for Rod Gardner got him a one game suspension. He went on a media boycott during the season. So while he was entertaining us fans by de-cleating opponents but he also alienated us by pulling dumb ass moves off the field.

Who knew all this was a prelude to the troubles this off-season? First, shortly after the team had its final meeting of the season we heard the grumbling from his camp. Taylor was already complaining about his rookie contract and wanted to renegotiate (never mind the fact by league rules rookies are forbidden from re-negotiating their contracts for one year). He hired super Agent Drew Rosenhause whose other clients, Javon Walker & Terrell Owens, were threatening long holdouts on similar contract issues. Then he missed the off-season weight-training program, then the OTAs. Clinton Portis was spreading the news that Taylor was tired of football. On Santana Moss’ return from summer vacation at the U of M off-season training program, or as I call it, Brat Camp, he said that Taylor was nowhere to be found. All this while not returning phone calls to our beloved Coach Gibbs.

Then it happened. The thing many of worried would happen. The dreaded off-season incident. And to look back it really was inevitable. Taylor was heading down the path to self-destruction and he may have gotten his wish. Taylor’s ATV’s were stolen. So what does this son of a Police captain do? Report the incident and let the police handle it? No. Report the theft to his insurance agent and get new ones? No. Demand two brand new ATVs be part of his contract re-negotiation? No.

That’s right, Taylor decided to go vigilante and confront the men he thinks stole his ATVs. So he rolled down to the guy’s house, confronted him, and allegedly punched one man while brandishing his handgun. That’s right hand gun. But Mr. Incredible did not stop there. He went home, got a couple of more buddies, rolled back to the guys home, and once again threatened them. This time one of his friends, allegedly, chased one of the supposed perps with a bat.

The whole story is a little crazy and some of the timing a little funny. But the DA is not laughing. He has filed charges against Taylor and is offering a plea deal to the bat-swinging accomplice to make the charges stick. So far Taylor is lucky because his “friend” has rejected the plea deal. However with a minimum of three years of jail time for brandishing the pistol, Taylor’s future is definitely in peril. And his “friend” is looking at aggravated assault. Eventually loyalty means nothing when you are looking at big boy time.

I bet you anything Taylor wishes he returned Coach’s call and got into Redskins Park on time.

Say what you want about the case. The DA may be hunting for a target here and there definitely are some holes to poke at. But Taylor is the one we should be mad at. He is the one who made these choices. He is the one who went awol from the Redskins. He is the one who refused to pick up the cell phone to the team that made him a millionaire. He is the one who decided to go play detective. He is the one who put himself into this situation. And He is the one whon deserves most of our scorn.

Now he says he is going to be in training camp on time. Great. And we are told his trial date on September 12th will be moved into the off season so Taylor will not have this to deal with during the season. Wonderful. However with his very future in jeopardy you have to think it will affect him somehow this season. Some players seem to flourish when in trouble and use the football field as a sanctuary. But if what Portis said earlier in the off-season is true, that Taylor is sick of football, I am not so sure that will happen here.

So at the top of this article I said I didn’t want to write about Taylor. And I didn’t. So why did I spend the last 800 words recanting a story that many Redskins fans are already familiar with? Well because Taylor’s case is not the only one. In recent years the off-season for the NFL is one long police blotter. In recent years we had a star linebacker, Ray Lewis, accused of murder (later acquitted), a star running back, Jamal Lewis, accused of drug trafficking (cut a plea and serving house arrest), and a receiver kill his pregnant girlfriend, (now starting wide receiver for a guy named Bubba in the Carolina penal system).

Now I don’t mean to pick on the NFL, but something is wrong in the state of Denmark. Violent crime among NFL players is on an alarming rise, and most of it is done in the off-season. We don’t see this type of problem in the NBA off-season. Nor in the baseball off-season. Nor in the hockey off-season, and we had a whole 16 months of it. This not to say the NBA, MLB, and NHl don’t have their problems. NBA players are overpaid whiny brats. MLB baseball are dealing with a major roids problem. And NHL players are just plain stupid.

But the NFL players are unique in the frequency and intensity of off the field violence. Now some of this can easily be explained away. The NFL is a violent sport, which attracts violent personalities, and many times this spills over. The NFL also is the largest of all the team sports with 55 players on 32 teams. Incidents will occur at larger rates then say Basketball where there are only 12 active players, or baseball where there are 26. So some of this is expected.

But I also blame the NFL off-season itself for much of this problem.

Our sport has the shortest season of any of the professional team sports. Just a 17-week regular season. The playoffs add only 4 to 5 more weeks of time. All in all training camps start around August 1st and the super bowl is played in early February. That is a full 6 months of inactivity for these young well paid, and in many cases, violent, young men with no structure and no identity. The NBA has a little over 3 months of off-season and many of the players attend summer league games. MLB has around 3 months as well, and winter league ball for a few players.

Sure the NFL has world league ball over in Europe but only a handful of players from each team attend. OTAs are not mandatory and neither are the off-season weight programs. In fact if you’re a former U of M player you rather go to Brat Camp and chase college freshmen then be at your teams facilities.

Too much time on these players’ hands are turning Johnny into very bad boys.

The NFL needs to step in here and do something, quickly. I love the NFL and I love the game of football. However I want to be able to root for the players and have my children look up to them without having to explain their rap sheet. The NFL is the most popular sport in America. But with a few more bad off seasons there could be a backlash. For the health of the game, as well as its players, Commissioner Tagliabue has to do something. With the upcoming collective bargaining agreement he has his opportunity.

The Union and the NFL need to come to an agreement that more structure, not less, is needed in the off-season. And not just for Rookies. A three-day rookie seminar does not solve the problem. 20-year-old men are usually a mess. Throw in a little money and a lot of hanger-on, no-good, friends and it is a recipe for disaster. It is time to stop hoping 20-year-old men, boys really, will suddenly mature and the incidents will stop and start adding the structure so desperately needed.

Football is a violent sport and one of the reasons a long off-season is needed is recovery time. Gone, however, are the days when players needed the off-season to work part time jobs to supplement their income. Veteran minimum salaries are about 250k to 750K. Signing bonus regularly reach more then an average American will make in their life span. If you don’t add some structure the incident rate will only increase. So here are my suggestions.

1.) Allow teams to mandate attendance in the off-season Weight Program. Teams would love it. Players would be better off for it. To avoid some teams misusing it, limit the mandatory time to the month right before the draft in April.

2.) Allow Teams to mandate attendance in the OTAs. This usually lasts for the month or so after the draft. Making it mandatory will allow teams to better acquaint themselves with their players and keep them off the street with nothing to do.

3.) Add 2 regular season games and one more bye week. This will have the effect of making training camps, as well as the pre-season, earlier or the post season later. Either way is fine with me. 16 game seasons are too short and the extra bye week can help with injuries. It will also increase revenue for all teams as well as advertising and network packages. This will automatically increase the salary cap as well enriching the players. A win-win for everyone all the way around.

The NFL will have to give up a few things to the Union for added mandatory time. But whether it is a higher salary cap or added roster space, it is money well spent. The league will be on better footing, the fans will have more games, the players will have more money, and the off season will have more structure. They will still get 3 to 4 months of down time and injured players can be excused from the mandatory activities. Bst of all more football for us fans to enjoy and for the NFL to reap the rewards of.

Back to our Sean Taylor I have no advice for this troubled young man. Nor do I have advice for the Redskins. This kid has all the signs of a grade A problem child. If he is innocent of these charges it will come out in the wash. If not he is looking at hard time and he better try and get a plea ala Jamal Lewis to do 4 months of time in prison during the off-season. At least then he can learn from his head strong ways and correct himself.

For the sake of our defense I hope this all blows over. Maybe next off-season Taylor could leave the detective work to the pros and return Coach Gibbs’s calls instead of spending time In a Florida jail cell wondering who will be his bunkmate for the next three years.