The NFL and America’s Drinking Problem
by David J. Leonard | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
A month ago Jerry Brown Jr. lost his life. Like all too many people, each and every day, his death was the result of drunk driving. According to police reports, Brown was a passenger in the car of his Dallas Cowboys’ teammate and college roommate, Josh Brent. Travelling at what appeared to be a high speed on an interstate highway, Brent’s car struck the “outside curb, causing the vehicle to flip at least one time before coming to rest in the middle of the service road.” In just an instant one man’s life was lost and his best friend’s life would be forever changed. “Officers at the scene believed alcohol was a contributing factor in the crash,” noted John Argumaniz, an Irving police spokesman. “Based on the results and the officer's observations and conversations with Price-Brent, he was arrested for driving while intoxicated.” This is tragic on so many levels, but that is not the emergent story.
In wake of this tragic death and Brent’s arrest, a narrative emerged that sought to construct a bridge between football and drunk driving. The Memphis Business Journal parroted widely cited statistics in its piece about the “NFL’s Drinking Problem” to highlight the large problem that had tragic consequences:
In the wake of the alcohol-related death of Dallas Cowboys linebacker Jerry Brown over the weekend, the NFL may have some serious soul-searching to do.
USA TODAY reports 28 percent of the 624 player arrests since 2000 occurred because of a suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The single-vehicle accident in which Brown was killed marked the third time since 1998 an NFL player killed another person due to suspected intoxicated driving, the paper reported.
Barron H. Lerner, with “Why Can't the NFL Stop Its Players From Driving Drunk?” offered a similar song, noting statistics about NFL players and arrests (yet of course failing to offer notation that this same study revealed that NFL players were less likely to engaged in this practice than their non-playing peers). He also recycled the longstanding argument that NFL players are more likely to engaged in such behavior because of the lack of moral and legal consequences:
It is reasonable to speculate that these efforts have lowered the rates of drunk driving among NFL players and, for that matter, all professional athletes. But there is still a culture of drinking and driving among NFL players. As Dan Wetzel reported on Yahoo, drunk driving is the league's biggest legal issue. A study by the San Diego Union-Tribune found that 112 of the 385 NFL player arrests between 2000 and 2008 involved drunk driving. In 2009, Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donté Stallworth, who had been drinking at a hotel bar in Florida, struck and killed a pedestrian. The problem is that there are limits to moral and legal deterrents.
Similarly, Brian Miller called for greater surveillance and punishment to address the NFL’s criminal problem:
From drugs, murder, DUI, assault and battery, the NFL needs to stand up in front and lead. They need to be tougher and frankly, Roger Goodell is a pretty tough commissioner. However, it's time that he starts landing major punches in his battle to clean up the image of the NFL. In order to do that, he will need more than simple cooperation from the (players' union). This is not an NFL issue; it's a players issue.
The narrative that imagines the NFL as a league of irresponsible drunks and criminally-minded threats to public safety dominants the landscape.
Certainly there should be a space to talk about the specific manifestations of alcoholism and drunk driving within a football sub-culture. Lets talk about it all - masculinity, self-medication, the selling of parties/lifestyles as payment for their profitable labor, and a league that makes millions off alcohol. But lets not get it twisted, alcoholism and drunk driving are a societal problem; football merely recapitulates the broader tragedies and issues within society at large. Moreover, if we are going to have this conversation, can we please have it with facts?
"The San Diego Union-Tribune reviewed hundreds of news reports and public records since January 2000 and found that the league's biggest problems with the law are in many ways just as ordinary: drunken driving, traffic stops and repeat offenders. In addition, contrary to public perception, the arrest rate among NFL players is less than that of the general population, and fueled by many of the same dynamics, analysts say....
While drunken driving arrests were the most common arrest among NFL players, the arrest rate was below that for males under 30 in the United States, which is roughly 2 percent, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In the NFL, it's about one DUI arrest per 144 players (less than 1 percent), based on the review. Mix in lots of money, fame and expensive cars, and perhaps it's no surprise that drunken driving is the NFL's most common arrest charge. Among people ages 22-34 in the United States, DUI and drug-related offenses are the two most common charges, according to the FBI.
Irrespective of the sensationalism and aversion to facts, lets be clear: NFL players are less likely to drink and drive in comparison to those in a similar age group.
Even this data has its complications, given the realities of racial profiling. In examining traffic stops involving NFL or NBA players we need to account for race, given the leagues' demographics and given the hegemony of racial profiling. According to Peter Roby, “The whole issue of driving while black is not a figment of somebody's imagination. If (police) are on the lookout and sensitized to looking for certain people, they're probably going to find that.” If you look at studies that document each and every case involving NFL and NBA players, the number of cases where charges are dropped/never filed is telling. It should give at least some pause regarding pundits who like to cite arrest numbers, who refuse to acknowledge racial profiling.
Even with racial profiling, even when focusing on arrest rates and nothing else, the numbers still don’t point to an NFL or sports specific problem. In other words, you can talk all you want about the NFL, a culture of entitlement, and even rely on racial stereotypes, but the facts are the facts: NFL players are less likely to drive drunk than others in their age group.
And if the concern is about drunk driving, lets have that conversation. Where are the articles on college students and their drunk driving problem. Studies have found that 1 in 5 college students admit to driving drunk; over 40% admit to knowingly getting into a car with a drunk driver. Where is the media sensationalism about the culture of universities, the sense of entitlement, and the lack of moral/legal consequences? This is clearly a problem, yet the silence is telling.
Where are these same articles about CEOs and Wall Street executives and their drinking problem? If you type in drunk driving and Wall Street or any number of professions, what do you think you find, a number of cases, but no articles with Headlines, "does Wall Street or D.C." have a drunk driving problem. The tragedy over the weekend, and the issue of alcoholism or drunk driving within the NFL is a mirror into society at large. It is a window into the issues, many of which we refuse to confront, by scapegoating and criminalizing certain segments of society. Where are the sensational articles that comment on culture, criminality, and a lack of requisite punishment? Where are the stories that bundle together rather than individualize the cases involving a Florida Polo Mogul; the co-founder of Crocs or this Wall Street CEO all of whom had incidents of drunk driving (two of these cases involve fatalities). Included in such a story about the “life styles of the rich, famous, and drunk” should be the sad tale of Alix Rice, who lost her life because of a drunk driver:
A wealthy and well-connected local doctor, James G. Corasanti, was driving his BMW after spending hours as a country club—an outing at which, it was noted in the trial, Corasanti drank five rum and cokes, plus wine and champagne. He hit the teenager so hard that she was propelled 167 feet, breaking her neck and causing other injuries. Then he drove home. The doctor—whom supporters during the trial period lauded as a lifesaver for his patients, left the girl to die. He wasn't just drunk, he was speeding and texting. Further, prosecutors said, Corasanti deleted texts and removed the victim's blood and body tissue from his fancy car before turning himself in to authorities.
Despite having been cited for “driving while impaired” received ONE YEAR in prison. Lets talk about the problem of drunk driving given that 13,000-14,000 people die each year. This isn’t an NFL problem; its not a sports problems . . . it’s a society problem.
I know its comforting to imagine the tragic death as a symptom of the NFL (and there is a lot to criticize and loathe about the NFL); I know it is comforting to imagine the NFL as an out of control league of drunk criminals (police and criminal justice system then become solution); I know it comforting to pathologize and demonize the NFL, with its overwhelming number of African American players. I know it might even be pleasurable to imagine transgressions through black bodies, simultaneously reinforcing dominant ideas about blackness while yet again imagining whiteness as civilized, law-abiding, and harmless.
Here we can see the hegemony of Blackcriminalman trope; despite committing proportional number of crimes as any other population (or even less than frequently), the NFL and NBA player is consistently depicted as “out-of-control thugs” who are a threat to the society at hand. According to Richard Lapchick: “You can say for sure the athletes have a problem, but athletes are not the problem. They are representative of society where many of these issues are epidemic.” Confirming stereotypes and scapegoating black youth, the narrative of the criminal NFL player has larger consequences. The tragedy involving Jerry Brown and Josh Brent, as with the tragedy involving Alix Rice, should give us pause to look at the failures of society to address this public health issue. Stop with the pandering and scapegoating – its not a good look.
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David J. Leonard is Associate Professor in the Department of Critical Culture, Gender and Race Studies at Washington State University, Pullman. He is the author of the just released After Artest: Race and the War on Hoop (SUNY Press) as well as several other works. Leonard is a regular contributor to NewBlackMan, layupline, Feminist Wire, and Urban Cusp. He is frequent contributor to Ebony, Slam, and Racialicious as well as a past contributor to Loop21, The Nation and The Starting Five. He blogs @No Tsuris.
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