Don't apologize for that. Don't back off. You were right in the first place.
>> Thursday
I'm sort of disappointed in Bengals coach Marvin Lewis right now. If you're keeping track, this would make this the first time I've been anything but indifferent toward Marvin Lewis, and I wish it didn't have to be negative.
But seriously, I was upset to hear what he said today. If you missed this story, Marvin Lewis said the following yesterday in regard to the crazy number of arrests his players have faced in the past year:
"I think there's profiling, no question," Lewis said. "We're (Cincinnati) a small place - our guys stand out, and they know that, and you've got to do things the right way. But when you are arrested for, or you are pulled over for, not putting on your turn signal, there's something wrong there.
"Many people make right turns without putting on their turn signals and it's unfortunate that we've had a guy that's pulled over for not putting on his turn signal."
1) That statement is fairly obvious truth. Look--his players haven't been angels. NFL players in general are not angels. But there is no way that this one particular NFL franchise is as disproportionately loaded with "bad apples" as their arrest record would indicate.
2) Rich, young, black athletes have been targeted by cops ever since there was such a thing as rich, young, black athletes. This may be a difficult assertion to prove, but the anecdotes are well known.
3) Would you doubt for a second that after the first few run-ins with Bengals players, the Cincinnati cops might have started up a contest of "Who can bag the next Bengal"? Or if not that, that they wouldn't at least relish the chance to be the next cop to arrest a Bengals player?
I'm happy Lewis stood up for his players. Except then today, he went ahead and said this:
“Yesterday, I gave a radio interview and made some comments that did not illustrate the high regard I have for the Cincinnati Police Department,” Lewis said. “I apologize that what I said did not reflect my true feelings.”
“I have spoken with Tom (Thursday) to express my regret,” Lewis said. “I do not believe the Cincinnati Police Department is specifically profiling our players.”
Unfortunately, I think it's pretty obvious that Lewis does believe that but retracted to avoid a PR mess and, perhaps, because he's simply too nice a guy. But if I were one of Lewis's players, and I genuinely felt I was pulled over on a DWB, I wouldn't be too thrilled with my coach right now.
I understand that Lewis is involved in the community. I understand that he respects the police force. But I think his first obligation is to his players--not to the Crooked Cops of the CPD.
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4 comments:
When did Clinton Portis start writing for YCS? This is so ignorant. You can't prove that young, rich, black athletes are being profiled more than I can prove that young, rich, black athletes are overly-eccentric and regard themselves above the law. I hope you cringed as much as I did when I even had to write that. These guys broke the law and they should be punished.
I generally like reading your guys blog but I think this entry is way off kilter.
While it seems ridiculous the amount of Bengals who have been arrested, the organization previously drafted and signed guys solely through evaluating talent and ignoring the past transgressions that many of these guys had. I cannot fault Lewis and company for this, since the pressure is great to build a winning football team, and to become as good as quick as the Bengals did required them to take a few shortcuts. Still, they have been extremely unlucky that so many of the character risk guys have come back and bitten them in the ass.
Usually I try to keep my posts on kilter, but once in a while I'll write one off pure conjecture and emotion (See my diatribes about the reopening of the Superdome). Maybe I should stop doing that.
"Crooked Cops of the CPD" was semi-intentionally meant to sound absurd, but I'm still rather convicted on my take, despite your objections.
Yes, that's a dicey assertion to make, and you're right--it can't be proven. I admitted as much, and I do understand your flip side of that.
I will admit that I don't generally hold law enforcement in the highest regard, and at the same time, I'm highly empathetic toward people in the public eye--particularly athletes. So I'm biased. Even still, I've gotta believe there's a powerful feather-in-the-cap attitude around cops making high-profile arrests.
The fact that profiling young, rich black athletes is an unproven suspicion is the reason that Marv had to apologize.
Calling out the Cincy Po-Po is a high-scale version of calling out refs after a game. You may very well be right, but if you can't prove anything (and you never can), you're just an instigator, and acting unprofessionally...I mean, isn't this the type of thing we hate Ozzie for?
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