The NFL Players Association leadership and its members need a serious dose of reality.

I have been trying keep up with this new NFL Personal Conduct Policy that the league announced late last week.

There was one thing that paticularly struck me as disturbing.

I was taken aback when I heard that the player’s union was unhappy with the fact that they were left out of the process of deciding what the policy would say.

Really?

You are mad that you are not being allowed to tell the NFL owners, who pay your ridiculous salaries, how you will conduct yourselves going forward.

I am not stupid. I know that professional athletes play by different rules when it comes to how they conduct themselves, but perhaps now is the right time to put an end to all that.

To say that the NFL has a player conduct problem is truly an understatement.

It is time someone put their foot down and told these overpaid babies that they are going to be held to a higher standard, not a lower one.

It is time someone tells them that if they are arrested for beating up their wives and girlfriends, or get caught with drugs and weapons in their possession that they are going to be terminated from their jobs just like the rest of us.

I am pretty sure that if I beat up anyone, let alone my spouse, and was arrested and charged I would be fired the same day.

There would be no appeal process to go through. I would be looking for another job.

The same should go for them.

There is no excuse for breaking the law and it is high time athletes are forced to live with the consequences of their actions.

I do not know of any profession that allows employees to decide the rules under which they will work.

They can negotiate things such as hours and salary, but rules of conduct are made by the management team and you either live with them or get a new job. It is time for some of these players to take a good hard look at how they act.

Playing in the NFL is aprivilege , not a right. Maybe they should be reminded of that.

 

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com.