Quiet roster moves involving players who have been implicated in Domestic Violence cases are happening all around the NFL, and anyone who is not paying attention should start paying attention. If you sift through all the different roster moves for the day you will find that Hageman has been put on the commissioner's exempt list because of charges in a domestic violence case in Dekalb County, Georgia. I imagine there are many little tales like this we miss because it is hard to keep track.
This is progress
This is progress for this reason. He was charged, and the Falcons put him on the list.
Now, I think they should have cut bait right there. However, I can see how they would put him on the list and let it play out in the courts. That is fine by me. They are telling Hageman, "you messed up. You go over here, and we will see what happens." That is all. No major media coverage. No hemming and hawing. They just did it. That is how it should be. There should not even be a question. If you are implicated, you are not playing for us.
What is next?
I think the next step would be getting rid of the commissioner's exempt list altogether. The public pressure alone would force most teams to cut bad guys, and there would be a system in place that forces teams to simply cut people that would bring them bad press.
It seems to be working just fine in the Colin Kaepernick case even though all he did was sit down. Perhaps the NFL could force a few values onto its teams by showing them that there is no way to dodge these issues.
Teach players to behave
Athletes are worshipped far too much for my liking. We have the cop in Tallahassee telling James Winston's victim that he was more important, effectively, because he was a football player.
We have the Penn State scandal coming out years after it actually started. We have the Baylor situation which is grotesque in every way, and we have thousands of high school athletes every year who are far too entitled in their schools and in their communities. We need to stop telling girls that boys pick on them because they like them, and we need to make it easier for girls to report sexual assault.
All those things together would help stem the tide a lot. Instead, we are still legislating what girls wear to school.
I think we ought to read this again and realize that football seems far less important when compared to the lives and dignity of girls abused by brutes that we all too often excuse.
