Isn't that like half of wat being a pro athlete is all about? Fwiw, my opinion is the only player who I'm worried about getting into trouble is Santonio Holmes...and even then I'm not too worried
just wanted everyone to know if you plan on taking the tour this weekend in the upper prime and above,i hope your in good shape because there won't be any escalators operating.you'll be hoofing it to the top.
Thanks. But we plan on taking the trip in the lower prime and below. I don't need escalators for that... Who are you again?
Character issues are as old as the NFL. Check out the book Pros and Cons for lots of old school naughtiness. While it may appear that Rex Ryan is in charge of Boys Town, he may very well be Father Flanagan. I'd rather see Rex teach these guys some responsibility and accountability than have to foot the bill along with other taxpayers for a prison stint. Maybe he should enclose a copy of GoodFellas with their playbook and see if they get the hint.
The Steelers zero tolerance policy might've drilled some sense into Holmes head, he's too good of a talent to let his downfall be character issues
What zero tolerance policy? He's too good of a talent to let his downfall be character issues? What does that mean. He is talented so he cannot fail?
You know, the one that let him stay on the team after he got busted with possession during a traffic stop.
Oh, I thought he meant the one that had allowed Roethlisberger to stay around after crashing his motorcycle. LOL
I've overstated the tolerance policy of the Steelers, but its rather strict none the less. What does that mean? Seriously? It means that he's a good player player so he shouldn't let things like recreational drugs and domestic abuse halter his career.
Haha, that one wasn't really against the law though. Wearing a helmet on a motorcycle is optional in Pittsburgh and there was nothing in his contract.
Ok, I thought you were implying his talent alone would allow him to overcome such things. The thought of position in life and using your talents is a long running argument about athletes that had ton of promise but lost out to their demons. It is easy to pick out names of guys who had similar or even better situations and shit it all away, whether it be dope or crime, they are where they came from in most cases. To be honest, I don't really know of any tolerance policy of the Steelers, thus the reason I joked about it. Never really considered what the level of acceptance is, nor do I have any examples to prove anything. The only one you could really use at this point is Holmes. I really couldn't see tham cutting Roethlisberger, some names have to really bomb out to be just dumped, especially franchise QBs.
Suprised they don't, you would think they would make them sign some sort of clause to avoid eating a monster contract over something stupid.
JUST IN CASE ANYONE DIDN'T THINK SANTONIO HOLMES WAS AN A-HOLE... Santonio's Steeler career ends the same way it started Posted by Mike Florio on April 12, 2010 1:51 AM ET NFL_holmes3_250.jpgIn the never-ending NFL news cycle, it's easy to forget things that happened four weeks ago, much less four months or four years. For Santonio Holmes, his four-year career in Pittsburgh has ended under the same circumstances that it began. In May 2006, roughly a month after being selected in the first round of the draft, Holmes was busted in South Beach for disorderly conduct. Said a league source in response to the news, "Santonio was one of the talented assholes in the draft. This arrest is not a revelation, nor is it out of character. This guy is Plaxico, plus." The next month -- only a week after quarterback Ben Roethlisberger drove his face into a Chrysler -- Holmes was arrested for allegedly choking, throwing to the ground, and slamming into a door the mother of one of his children. The move prompted former NFL executive Ken Herock, who had been hired to help Holmes prepare for pre-draft interviews, to explain that Holmes was "ready to explode." "I had an impression of the kid, where he was from, such a tough area, but soon as he told me he had three kids I knew it was going to be a problem," Herock told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at the time. "He was dirt poor, all of a sudden he's got a little money, you get a little rambunctious. . . . But I would have never thought it would happen now. I thought he might explode in year two or three. Add it up -- no money, poor family background, three kids already -- something's going to happen." The domestic violence allegations prompted the director of the Pittsburgh Women's Center and Shelter to suggest that the Steelers refrain from signing Holmes to a big-money contract. The situation quickly stabilized. Holmes got in no additional trouble, but he was solid and not spectacular in his first two NFL campaigns. Though many league observers believe that a wideout will break out by his third year in the league, the only significant news he made during the 2008 regular season came from a citation for marijuana possession, followed promptly by a one-game paid suspension imposed by the team. Of course, then came the postseason, the moment that Holmes finally came of age. A frozen-field 67-yard punt return for a touchdown allowed the Steelers to knot at 7-7 their division-round game against the Chargers, at a time when the Pittsburgh offense had yet to get rolling. A week later, a 65-yard catch-and-run from Holmes helped take down the Ravens. Then, in the Super Bowl, Holmes made that play for the ages in the corner of the end zone, cradling the ball, barely getting a second foot down, and somehow avoiding a 15-yard penalty for paying homage to LeBron James by throwing the ball into the air. Holmes, who told me after the game that he "wasn't even thinking about" the rule prohibiting the ball from being used as a prop, later was fined -- an implicit admission by the league that the Cardinals' last crack at victory should have commenced with a Pittsburgh kickoff from the Steelers' own 15. Holmes' heroics almost were more than enough to obscure a stunning admission made in the days prior to the Super Bowl regarding his upbringing. Holmes said that, as a youth, he sold drugs. "My friends were always doing it and I felt comfortable doing it at the time," Holmes said at the time. "As the years grew older, I just felt like that wasn't what I wanted to do. I wanted to play football. I don't want to end up like a lot of my friends, in jail, standing on the corner, not going to school." In 2009, Holmes played the best football of his life, with 1,249 receiving yards on 79 catches. The performance seemed to point him in the direction of his openly-acknowledged quest for Canton. The 2010 offseason, however, has been his worst. On the same weekend that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger found himself accused of sexual assault in Georgia, Holmes was accused of throwing a drink in the face of a woman at an Orlando nightclub. Though she initially opted not to press charges, the woman later sued Santonio, and she has resurrected her criminal complaint. To make matters worse, Holmes invited a Twitter user who criticized the player to "kill urself." Then, Holmes indicated an intention to "wake n bake," slang for smoking pot upon getting out of bed in the morning. His admission becomes even more idiotic in light of our Saturday report that Holmes is facing a four-game suspension for violation of the substance abuse policy. At some point over the weekend, the Steelers decided they've had enough -- and they handed Holmes to the Jets for a fifth-round draft pick. So ends the career of Holmes in Pittsburgh. Though it included one of the brightest moments in NFL history, no Super Bowl MVP has ever experienced a more dramatic fall from grace. In the end, recent history tells us that it doesn't pay to make a memorable catch in the Super Bowl. For David Tyree of the Giants and for Holmes, the end of the road came only one year later. Unlike Tyree, who was run out of New York, Holmes is getting a fresh start in the Big Apple. We hope that he has learned from his mistakes, that he decides he loves football more than he loves weed (allegedly), and that he continues to prove that he's capable of making a legitimate run at the Hall of Fame.
Keep worrying about it if you want. Keep bolding the parts that bother you. But keep this in mind. He is a one year rental. The most the Jets lose is a fifth round draft choice if he fails again. They can wash their hands of him, with no salary cap ramifications, as if he was never here. But if he pans out....the upside is tremendous. It is worth the risk.
