With a never ending stream of players lining up for fingerprints and mugshots, Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora has suggested a solution.
Be like Tebow.
“I know that everybody likes to make fun of Tim Tebow and talk about him, but he sets an outstanding example for people,” Umenyiora said, according to Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News. “I think if more people would focus and try to be like him and carry themselves the way he does, I think things would be better.”
Osi said it’s “ridiculous” that 31 players have been arrested since Super Bowl XLVI, a rap sheet that includes Giants offensive lineman David Diehl, who was arrested for DUI after smashing his vehicle into a pair of parked cars.
“For the life of me, I can’t understand it,” Umenyiora said. “People need to be more focused and more grateful for what it is that they have. Coming from where I came from [on a trip to Nigeria] and seeing what I saw, all that poverty and people who have nothing, they would literally cut off both legs to have the opportunity these people have. And to be messing around like that, man, it’s really unfortunate.”
Umenyiora also said that Commissioner Roger Goodell deserves no criticism, in any way, for the rash of arrests.
“You can’t blame the Commissioner,” Umenyiora said. “He’s bringing down the hammer every time. But obviously people don’t like to listen. They’ll learn sooner or later.”
But if the Commissioner would surrender full control of the hammer, maybe the players would agree to greater penalties -- and in turn buy in to and necessarily respect the system of discipline and deterrence.
Regardless, something needs to happen. Until the rules are changed, having players hold each other accountable is the next best thing.