Taylor, Arrington and Coles need tough love

Yes, we have a little disturbance in the Redskins’ paradise.

Sean Taylor won’t participate in off season workouts. He won’t talk to the coach. He wants to renegotiate his contract. He wants to shoot his perceived adversaries.

Arrington signs a bazillion dollar contract then immediately complains that the Redskins cheated him out of six million dollars. Now, he’s staging a sick out.

Coles gets ninety balls and he says the offense is not vertical enough for him and he wants out even though the Redskins have already fed him millions to play for them for two years and he still has years remaining on his contract.

So, what gives with the modern athlete? Why are they so suspicious of authority? Why won’t they support an organization which pays them handsomely for skills which are only imperceptibly better than average? Why is it that they are never satisfied with their lot in life even though they are in the top one percent of the privileged few in the world?

Those questions are unanswerable with any certainty. But, given the fact that such people exist in the real world and we must learn to deal with them, we must develop a plan of attack to attempt to convert them to responsible citizens who benefit society rather than live off of it.

The first thing we must realize is that these athletes have marketable skills which the ordinary citizen does not possess, so, in today’s market, they deserve a wage scale appropriate to their skill level. But, with that extravagant remuneration comes responsibility on the recipient’s part.

We need to attempt to instill responsibility into each individual on a case by case basis. How do we do this? First of all, we don’t do many things. We don’t berate the individual in any forum. We don’t berate him through the press or a third party. We don’t challenge his manhood.

Each individual on the team must be given specific rules to follow on and off the field. We must provide him with a code of conduct. The individual needs to know that these rules must be followed to the letter. We must give the individual a grace period where he can acclimate himself to these standards. Then, we can allow him to fail two times. After that, he should be fired immediately.

There can be no ambiguity. There are also no favorites. All members of the team are treated equally.

These are not the Jimmy Johnson rules of conduct, where the superstars are treated differently than the special teamers. They are the Vince Lombardi rule of conduct where it’s my way or the highway.

However, even though the Vince Lombardi rules are sacrosanct, the implementation is completely different. The most glaring difference is that today’s athlete, as well as all people, deserve the utmost respect. However, they must be taught to adhere to a global set of rules which are applied on an individual basis.

Let’s take Sean Taylor as an example. He obviously has issues which make it necessary to approach him on an individual basis to inform him of how the code of conduct applies to him. He must learn that his off the field activities which are outside the rules of law are grounds for dismissal from the team. He must learn that when he signs a contract, he must adhere to it. With Taylor, management needs to be very specific with him. You don’t break the law. You don’t miss any mandatory practices. You return the coach’s calls. You give respect to get it.

If Taylor can’t abide by these simple rules, he needs to be fired immediately. He’s been given enough chances. Deleterious behavior cannot be tolerated anymore.

Now, with Coles, there needs to be a different approach. His behavior was not as flagrant as Taylor’s, but his actions were as bad, or worse. He essentially forced the Redskins to trade him for a perceived lesser player. The rule he broke was that he signed a contract and didn’t adhere to it. He went public about his desire to leave, so the Redskins had no other choice but to trade him. His main offense was that he went public with his distaste for the coach’s offensive strategy. That was grounds for dismissal.

Coles won this particular battle by breaking the rules to get what he wanted. The Redskins should have had a clause in every contract that the player must pay back his signing bonus on a prorated basis if he attempts to breach his contract by demanding a trade. In addition, that returned signing bonus needs to be deducted from the salary cap. This needs to be a league wide rule to which every individual and team must adhere.

Society as a whole and the Redskins in particular need to establish a code of conduct which must be applied in a fair and equal fashion. However, we must allow the individual a set amount of time to understand and implement this code of conduct. We must give each individual all of the responsibility that he can accept and the freedom to adhere to these rules in his own manner. That said, adherence to these rules must not be negotiable. And, of course, on the flip side, the rules must be tested and tweaked over time to make them as fair as possible.

So, that’s my spin on how to solve the problem. But, the more interesting aspect of this diatribe is the original question as to why some modern athletes display antisocial behavior even though they are pampered by everyone and given every opportunity to succeed.

The problem could be bad parenting. Bad schooling. Bad environment. Bad government. Of course it could. All of these parameters have an effect on an individual. But, one thing is different. A world class athlete can fall into a dangerous trap if he’s not careful.

The athlete who exhibits this antisocial behavior loses his perspective and his grip on reality along the way. He is pampered. He is told that he is special, and he is. The rules are bent for him. He’s given special privileges. He is told he is the best.

But, when he gets to the pros, he is now just one of the boys. He is no better than most of the other members of the team. He is shocked by his inability to exert his superior athletic talent over the other players. He’s one of many great athletes. So what if he’s Sean Taylor. He’s not as good as Ronnie Lott. So what if he’s Lavernaeous Coles. He’s not as good as Jerry Rice.

He was the man through grade school, high school and college, but, in the pros, he is just one of many. So, what is he to do? The only way he can exert his will on management and his fellow teammates is to lash out in an antisocial manner. He can’t accept the fact that he’s now just one of the boys. He never learned humility. His amped up self esteem clouds his reasoning and makes it impossible for him to accept his lot in life.

He demands respect rather than earning it.

To be continued…