A TV Show is NOT the NFL's ' Image Problem'

I contemplated writing this post, but I thought, why not.

I have always loved a good, well done soap opera. It's a guilty pleasure of mine. And, the Brits are very good at producing some good soapy trash.

Some of the best trash is the British show, Footballers Wives. Footballers Wives is about players and their ladies of one of the most popular Football (Soccer) clubs in England. It has everything: money, power, sex- any way you want it-straight, gay, bi, anything you want..LOL. They were no holds barred in how they presented the lives of these soccer players. I never read anything about Manchester United going to the networks, and getting the show killed because they felt it perpetrated a 'bad image' for the league.

So, I was a little leery when I heard that ABC was developing an American version of Footballers Wives, based on our own American football. I didn't think that a watered down, network version would even be worth watching. If it were on HBO or Showtime, I would have been pumped to see it. Then I watched who they got attached to it: Gabrielle Union, Holly Robinson Peete, Ving Rhames. I though, ok, I'll give it a shot. Then, I heard that it had been picked up by ABC, and I thought it was ready for primetime.

Then, last week, I see this headline: ABC drops US 'Footballers' Wives'

What was the reason for it. To quote the article: "ABC has axed plans for an American version of Footballers' Wives due to potential conflicts with the National Football League."

Now, why am I getting a serious case of deja vu?

Oh, yes, from a little show called PLAYMAKERS.

Playmakers was a show about the NFL on ESPN. It was GREAT. It was a soap opera about football. I watched every episode, and thought it rocked. The NFL forced ESPN to cancel it, because of the ' negative images' of the NFL that is presented.

What a crock.

Like we have a negative image of the NFL because of a stupid tv show.

NO...we have a negative image of the NFL because it is littered with spoiled, pampered athletes who act atrociously, and think that they shouldn't be called on their crap.

Maybe we have a negative image of the NFL, because of players like Michael Vick, who has recently come to the forefront because of his possible involvement in a dog fighting ring. It was on his property, but, he claims ignorance, yet others dispute that claim.

Informants Link Vick to Dog Fighting
Report: Vick bet big on dog fights
Search warrant obtained in Vick probe

Vick is not the first NFL player in the news..oh, not by far.

There is a new NFL Commissioner, and one of the problems that he wants to tackle is how the OFF-GAME behavior of NFL Players DOES affect how the league is seen.

He's finally decided that enough is enough, and that grown men maybe should be held seriously accountable for behavior that finds them on the police blotters.

When you look at team after team, of player after player finding themselves on the police blotters - when does one say, 'enough is enough'.

If I were the owner of the Cincinnati Bengals, I think I'd be willing to fire damn near the entire team and start from scratch. When you get past NINE of anything on one team that wind up on the inside of police station, something needs to be done.

These grown men have more money than 99% of the population, yet they can't seem to find ways to entertain themselves that fall within THE LAW. Why is that?

A TV show isn't the NFL's problem.

The problem can be staring you literally in the face, as it did me about two months ago, reading the USA Today Sports Page. Cover Story was about the NFL's issue with these players, and the imagery is something that I won't soon forget. In full color, like the Most Wanted Wall at the Post Office - row upon row upon row of NFL players who had been charged with criminal offenses. It was simply embarrassing. Seemed like it went on for forever.

THAT is the NFL's 'Image Problem'. One that it has earned- whether Footballers Wives, or Playmakers, or the next proposed TV show that gets snuffed out by the NFL- ever sees the light of day.

Until we stop coddling grown men and make them responsible for the poor CHOICES that they make, the NFL will contine to have their ' image problem'.