Character means very little in the NFL

Twenty-four states in our country use some form of the Three Strikes Law to prosecute criminals. In the NFL, it usually takes that many incidents for a guy to pop up on anyone’s radar. Until then, players are just labeled as having “character issues” while owners turn their heads and pray no one gets killed.

The greatest farce in sports is that moral makeup matters. It doesn’t. At least not initially. A team won’t give up on a player capable of producing on the field until he’s exhausted the use of his get-out-of-jail-free card, the pass every athlete with any kind of ability receives the minute he goes pro (and usually, long before that).

Even when one franchise decides to sever ties with a player, another one will bite the bullet. They don’t see felons; they see finds. Bargains. That’s why the New York Jets were right there to offer a fifth round pick to Pittsburgh in exchange for Santonio Holmes this week. Holmes, who has admitted to selling drugs as a teenager, has been arrested three times since entering the league in 2006 and was only dealt following accusations that he threw a glass at a woman in an Orlando nightclub in March. Following the trade, the NFL suspended him four games for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.

Holmes isn’t the first player with off-field issues the Jets have acquired this off-season. Last month, the team sent a third round pick in 2011 to San Diego for Antonio Cromartie. Cromartie, who would be even money to get the Virgin Mary pregnant if he were alone in a room with her, has seven children by six women in five different states.

It should be noted that the Jets will be featured on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” series during training camp this year. Maybe the goal is to produce a reality show with more drama than “Jersey Shore.”

Or maybe they just don’t care.

Character flaws aside, the Jets recent additions will almost certainly make the team a trendy pick to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl this season. Holmes will return from suspension to join Braylon Edwards (currently facing assault charges) and Jerricho Cotchery to make up one of the top receiving corps’ in the league. Comartie will be a major contributor in what might already have been the best defense in the league.

Why should it matter if the team is on track to become New York’s sixth crime family by the time the season opens? Winning trumps all.

Of course, the Jets aren’t the only team following that motto. The Steelers may have had enough of Holmes, but it’s clear that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger still has a few swipes left on his get-out-of-jail free card.

Because they have a crush on the Steelers’ do it right persona, some media members decided that the Holmes trade was supposed to serve as some kind of message to Roethlisberger. False. A message to Roethlisberger would be to suspend him even before Commissioner Roger Goodell got involved. Make it clear that if his name so much as appears in the news for anything other than football, his career in Pittsburgh would be over.

That didn’t happen because Big Ben is still worth big bucks in the eyes of the Rooney family.

Now he’ll get yet another chance to correct his behavior.
And that, as we head into the NFL draft, will be the lasting message to everyone entering the league. As long as you can get it done on the field, you can do what you want off it.

It takes an awful lot to strike out in the NFL.

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Random Rumblings

• Mike Smith and Tony Sparano may have failed to reach the next round of the playoffs, but that doesn’t take away from the incredible impact each had on his team this season, and that puts a lot of pressure on those interviewing for vacant head positions around the league. General Managers throughout the NFL just watched the Falcons and Dolphins reach the playoffs a season after combining for just five wins, which suggests that the right head coach shouldn’t need very long to turn even the worst team around.
  
  It’s not like Smith and Sparano came in with much to work with either. Each had new quarterbacks on the roster, one who had never taken a snap in the NFL and another who had a reputation for throwing like the first basemen on your beer-league softball team. That means that even the Lions, who have one of the best receivers in the league in Calvin Johnson, should have high expectations for their next head coach. And in a place like Cleveland, where the Browns were the sexy pick to reach the playoffs, ten wins will be an absolute necessity.
  
  
• Of course, no matter how talented the roster is, it’s hard to trust anyone running the Cleveland Browns. Anyone who has paid attention to the Jets the past few seasons will tell you Eric Mangini is not a guy who should run the show. Yet Cleveland, obsessed with anyone who has ever had anything to do with the Patriots, have made him the front runner for its head job.
  
  
• By the way, if the Broncos don’t have a head coach by Friday, you can bet Bob Stoops will have interest then.
  
  
• Brett Favre is “leaning” toward retirement again, which is like Oprah leaning toward dieting – the end result is inevitable. I’m sure Brett will change his mind and find a team good enough for him, one that will allow him to run the show even as he throws pick after pick.
  
  It’s embarrassing that A) no one in the mainstream media was ever willing to point out what an egomaniac this guy was while in Green Bay and B) the Jets were completely fine with trading for a guy that had no interest in being a good teammate. There are plenty of sports where camaraderie is overrated. Michael Jordan spent far more time at the blackjack table than he did at the dinner table with his teammates and Manny Ramirez probably couldn’t name ten guys he’s ever played with – both still led their teams to championships. But football is the one sport where a good relationship with the guys around you is imperative.
  
  Of course Favre thought it was okay to alienate himself from his teammates from day one, as if the best way to lead players was to avoid them. Is this the type of guy you want quarterbacking your team next season?
  
  
• Charles Barkley is John Daly with a larger following. And if the state of Alabama ever votes him governor, it should be kicked out of the union.
  
  
• Something doesn’t feel right about this UConn team. It’s almost like two seasons ago where the players were so scared of getting pulled by Jim Calhoun that they could never play to their full potential. Calhoun needs to ease up and remember what worked last season.
  
  
• A healthy, fresh-legged bench player who can play defense, score in bunches and pass the basketball is what the Boston Celtics need. Yet everyone seems to think Stephon Marbury in a limited role will automatically mean failure for the Celtics.
  
  
• I didn’t do one of those story of the year columns because to me, it was so clear-cut that it didn’t even warrant a post: Michael Phelps.
  
  For young people like me, there have been few, if any, points in our lives where it felt great to be an American. We’re in a war most people oppose. The first President that we’ve actually followed is one of the most-hated men on earth. And most people associate American sports with steroids and showboating. But 2008 was one of those years that gave us chills we normally only feel while watching movies. We stopped being apathetic toward politics and turned out in record numbers to vote a black man into office. And over the summer, we watched men swim as though it were the Super Bowl because an American was making history.
  
  The Michael Phelps story is our generation’s Miracle.

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Random Rumblings: Pressure is on for Favre

• It seems like every time Brett Favre’s name is brought up, we hear about how regular and easy to relate to he is. But for the NFL’s everyman, New York might be the one spot where is he different than just about every man.
  
  New Yorkers don’t lace up their cowboy boots and wear their Wranglers out to a ball game the way folks in other parts of this country might. And they definitely do not fall in love with athletes who look like “they are just having fun out there,” the phrase most often used to describe the Jets new quarterback.
  
  Ask Alex Rodriguez. Results are all that matters.
  
  Unlike ARod, Favre is alreafy recognized as a winner, but he also has a much smaller window to prove himself to fans in New York. Two years, tops. That’s why it won’t be too surprising if, after a couple of poor games from the old gun slinger, Jets fans start turning on Favre the way the crowds in Green Bay will undoubtedly turn on Aaron Rodgers.
  
  
• Only two weeks ago, I called Manny Ramirez the greediest athlete in the history of sports for complaining about his contract situation with his team in a playoff race.
  
  While I stand by that thought, I do think that the Red Sox were wrong for not a) offering Manny a contract extension earlier this season or b) telling him that his option would not be picked up at the end of the season.
  
  Anyone on the Sox side will tell you that the team is by no means obligated to do such a thing, but considering all that Manny did do for the organization, it would have been the right move.
  
  
• Two issues I had while watching Team USA defeat China in basketball this morning:
  
  1) Does LeBron James really need to make that silly “who me?” face every time a whistle gets blown? It’s reminds me so much of ARod.
  
  2) In the first half, commentators Doug Collins and Mike Breen went off about how bad the referees were in international basketball after one official called a palming violation on a Chinese guard. The truth is, just before the call, I said to myself, “it’s really looks like he’s palming the ball.”
  
  
• C.C. Sabathia should be the National League Cy Young.
  
  
• Memo to the Yankees: It’s difficult to change your setup man constantly over the course of a season and still remain successful. Yes, the Yanks had to put Joba in the rotation but they didn’t have to trade Kyle Farnsworth.
  
  Now they’re paying for it.
  
  
• Congratulations to Sacha Kljestan, who scored for Team USA on a pass from Freddy Adu this morning against the Netherlands. The first sports article that I ever wrote was during my freshman year at Seton Hall and the topic was Sacha and his brother Gordon. It’s nice to see a classy guy succeed.

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