Irony, irony in a dish, how many pieces do you wish?
Do I need to detail the irony for you?
Whether or not the NFL or by extension the New England Patriots knew it, according to the indictment just handed down by a Suffolk County Grand Jury, the league was essentially harboring a multiple killer.
The same league where people are up in arms about welcoming the first openly gay player, has been a long-time home for rapists, thieves and now wannabe gangsters who rack up bodies with the same efficiency as they do yards on the football field.
The new indictment against former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez is for a double murder that occurred in July 2012. This comes on the heels of last year’s indictment for Hernandez, who is currently in jail awaiting trial for the June 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd, whose body was discovered not far from Hernandez’s home.
This isn’t about laying blame at the feet of the NFL, not entirely. The league is violent by nature, and it shouldn’t be surprising that men paid to participate in violent activities on the field have issues controlling urges to commit violence off the field. If anything, more should be done to help these men before problems arise.
However, the league absolutely has a responsibility to properly vet players before giving them multi-million dollar contracts, which, if you’re already a degenerate criminal, will only serve to boost your ego and your taste for additional criminality, since suddenly you can afford much better legal counsel. That someone with a history like Hernandez was able to get into the NFL is absolutely an error on the part of the Patriots organization. When you’re playing around with that much money and that much media exposure, you damn well better know who you’re giving that level of power and prestige to.
For those of you who’d like to compare, Hernandez was drafted in the 4th round of the NFL Draft in 2010, while Michael Sam was drafted in the 7th, and possibly only because someone had to make that call. Maybe that’s making too much of a comparison, but if we talk about how people are somehow worried that a gay man will cause problems for the NFL and for fans, I think we all should take another look at what lies beneath the surface in a league that already has a number of problems far more dangerous than a man who openly loves other men.