The PLAY MINNESOTA Thread!

AndySlash said:

the vikings administration is a god damned joke. wilfs scheduled to talk at noon - that should have happened monday. just the week BEFORE, with the fallout of the ray rice ordeal, we saw how NOT to handle something like this. yet the vikes' didn't learn. unacceptable and they should be completely embarrassed.

They got it right the first time, and then they got crushed at home, and then coincidentally, they tried the "let the court process play out" approach.

The whole thing stinks on at least two fronts.

First, it appears that the Vikings front office reinstated a player with felony child abuse charges only because it would serve their on-field product. Whether that's true or the front office is just that inept makes little difference - they messed up and in doing so, tainted the integrity of an organization sorely lacking it in the past decade (see: Love Boat, Randy Moss, Wilfs fraud lawsuit in NJ, player arrests etc).

Second, even if the front office had stuck with their initially correct decision, you've still got a star player charged with an awful crime (yep, it's awful). Even if he's acquitted of the charges or somehow escapes some lengthy suspension within the league, you're still left with his admissions, namely that he beat a near-toddler with a branch. Someone who finds that appropriate is someone I'd have a really hard time ever cheering for again. Quite frankly, unless he takes a decidedly different approach than "I didn't intend to hurt [my son]," I'd be shocked and saddened if there aren't more who reach the same conclusion.

As I said, this whole thing stinks. As a fan, I selfishly just want my fanhood to be guilt-free. Now, we are all faced with (or should be) the conundrum of cheering for teams and players and a league that apparently tolerates violent criminals as its employees. This isn't a problem limited to just the NFL, but its clear that the NFL has the biggest problem on it's hands, whether it be from the sheer volume of players with criminal charges/convictions (far more than any other sport), or simply because its the biggest sports product in America. For the league, billions of dollars are at stake with how they handle situations like this. For individual fans, its your conscience.