The Thursday morning sports headlines announced how a popular Seahawk player has been suspended “indefinitely” for having tested positive for using marijuana. (“Seahawks’ Browner suspended indefinitely by NFL.”) The AM sports radio are dissecting this man’s character and common sense for committing this epic transgression. And the NFL is awash in self reverence for taking this strong moral stance on a 30-year-old journeyman football player testing positive for pot. They are trumpeting his indefinite suspension and using that as a warning to all who violate the leagues rules on performance enhancing drugs and other unauthorized substances.
What is astounding here is the level of hypocrisy showcased by the National Football League and the sporting establishment. There is probably no business entity on the planet that promotes-glorifies-advocates-and endorses the heavy consumption of alcohol more than the National Football League. Try this — record for four quarters of any NFL game, the alcohol ads alone. And play them back to back. Its quite the experience. It is impossible to quantify or comprehend the sheer destruction, horror and misery that alcohol abuse wreaks on society. Alcohol is ever present in major car fatalities and in a majority of virtually all violent crime. The numbers are staggering. And the NFL has their own official beer. And their relationship with the alcohol industry grows stronger by the day.
Keep this in mind when excoriating this player for using pot and facing career ending suspension-those imposing the sanctions are the active partners and promoters of the most widely abused and destructive drug in human history — alcohol. And this epic double standard goes unmentioned.
Jim Sawyer
Edmonds
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