Pro Athletes Must Remember The Security Risks
This is a special time of the year for the NFL.
After free agency, the draft, organized team activities and training camp, the regular season finally starts this weekend.
This year, though, there has been a somber reality that real life sometimes intrudes into the world of fun and games and the big-money celebrity life of the NFL.
The shooting of Jacksonville Jaguars offensive lineman Richard Collier last week was an example of that reality.
The shooting wasn’t an isolated incident. Four NFL players have been shot in the last two years. A fifth, Joey Porter, was shot in 2003.
Only Porter was able to play again. Darrent Williams and Sean Taylor died. Steve Foley survived, but he underwent 12 surgeries and has difficulty walking. And Collier remains in critical but stable condition at a Jacksonville hospital.
Porter was an innocent bystander who walked out of a Denver bar at the wrong time just as a drive-by shooter opened fire.
Foley, whose alcohol content was three times over the legal limit, was shot in 2006 by an off-duty Coronado, Calif., police officer who followed the player’s car when he saw it weaving on the road. Foley eventually received a $5.5 million legal settlement.
Williams was shot in a limo that was sprayed by gunfire when he was leaving a New Year’s Eve party in Denver one year ago. Taylor was killed in a home invasion last November in Miami.
The only common thread is that the incidents, except for Taylor’s, happened when the players were out between 1:47 a.m. and 3 a.m.
This, of course, isn’t just an NFL problem. There is a culture of guns and violence in America that nobody seems to know how to stop. But the incidents could be a reminder to players that it can be risky to be out late at night.
When Williams was shot, Porter told ESPN.com: “Since then [the time he was shot], I carry myself in a different type of way. I respect my situation whenever I go out. I take a whole different outlook when I go out. I make sure I feel safe, and if I’m not, I’m not going.”
The players are young, well-off and well-known, and it’s not surprising that they enjoy going out to clubs and savoring the nightlife. And that’s certainly their right. But they also must realize the possible consequences of staying out late at night.
Each year, the NFL offers a rookie symposium to warn players of the pitfalls they can face. But the players probably believe it will never happen to them.
These incidents show that it can.
- Florida Times Union
