The tragic death of Jerry Brown, Jr. a linebacker on the Dallas Cowboys practice squad, and the arrest of nose tackle Josh Brent, 24, adds another tragic note to this season after the murder-suicide involving Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher. Given a prior DUI conviction and the high visibility of this case, Brent is unlikely to be able to avoid a serious sentence for this alleged homicide unless the blood-alcohol tests can be challenged.
Police charged Brent with intoxicated manslaughter after he flipped his car at 2:21 am with his friend as a passenger. The car appears to have hit the curb and most have been going at an impressive speed if it flipped over.
Frankly, I am always astonished to read about drunken parties for NFL players during the season. These guys have remarkably few games and a short season for which they often earned millions. (Indeed, I continue to agree with many that the season needs to be extended with more games — though yesterday’s Bears loss to the Vikings has left me dazed and confused). Even if the Cowboys are out of the playoffs, they still have games to play and as the eighth seed could still make it into the playoffs. It would seem a small expectation that for the weeks of the season, NFL players would avoid late night carousing and drinking.
Brent pleaded guilty in 2009 to DUI in Urbana, Illinois and was suspended from playing further for the University of Illinois. He was sentenced to two years probation, 60 days in jail, a fine and 200 years of community service.
A report on NFL players arrested show a high rate of DUI cases.
There is obvious a certain fascination if not voyeurism in celebrity cases. Watching a celebrity fall from a great social height tends to captivate average citizens. The question is how Brent’s position should factor into sentencing if he pleads guilty. NFL players are obviously role models for good or bad for children. Should the court consider Brent’s position as a role model as an aggravating factor? He did not ask for such a role but he is a public figure who is generally treated under NFL rules as having social responsibilities. Yet would it be fair to impose a higher sentence due to his status as a football celebrity?
Source: Dallas News
An outstanding share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a coworker who had been conducting a little research on this. And he actually ordered me breakfast because I discovered it for him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending the time to talk about this subject here on your web site.
WHERE IS BOB COSTAS??? Shouldn’t he be having fits about people drinking alcohol right about now? Or does he not CARE about death by alcohol, only death by gunshots? Bob, your plasticisity is showing! He’s just not really so outraged by this one, from what I’ve seen.
I agree with Waldo on this. No to using ‘role model’ as an aggrivating factor. Although I don’t especially like Charles Barkley, I remember a few years ago when some reporter asked him about how he felt being a role model for kids. His response was that he wasn’t a role model for anyone and that the kids parents should be their role model. Apparently, being a ‘role model’ is something that this player has no control over, so it shouldn’t matter in his sentencing. Treat him like anyone else who finds themselves in a similar situation.
No crime and no successful suit against Mr. Brent. volenti non fit injuria.
FRankly:
My experience with these at-risk kids is that somewhere there is some authority figure making sure they get to practice, work hard, and follow the rules. Sometimes sports is the carrot that motivates them but I’ve yet to find where it turned a kid around without help from someone. I’ve seen the coach fill this role but it’s very rare.
Mepso – I’d disagree with you simply because I have know some outstanding athletes when they were young. I have no idea what the character would have become had they grown up under the rules of decent society. But given that they were allowed all manner of excess and all absence of consequences, sports molded their character it did not reveal it.
It taught them because they could do things other kids could not they were therefore allowed to do things other kids could not. That followed them from the time they excelled up through college in the ones I saw & appears to be something that is accentuated by the time they are a professional.
Pardon my cynicism AND naivete.
I have always perceived Celebrity to be mitigating as opposed to aggravating. Also Wealth, Social status, Political standing, Local “connections”, etc.
The theory of Law in our Democracy supports equal justice for all, regardless of status. PuShaww and Harummph.
Waldo, you may well be right o0n the end of Brent’s pro career. I’d wager he continues abusive drinking either way.