Why the NFL Sucks: Disarming NFL Players

By Jim on December 9th, 2008

I find the NFL’s attitude toward guns to be silly and quite dangerous for the players.

On the very afternoon the Redskins held a pregame ceremony to mark the first anniversary of Pro Bowl safety Sean Taylor’s killing, their opponents, the Super Bowl champion Giants, were dealing with questions about what happened to star receiver Burress on Friday night.

• “Players live in a serious fantasy world and a lot of it is involved with guns,” Dave Abrams, the director of security for the Denver Broncos, said Sunday.

• “They don’t realize you can’t call a bullet back.”

League policy bans guns from team facilities – there are signs pointing that out in locker rooms across the country.

The NFL also tells players not to have guns – something which largely goes unheeded. At least two members of the Redskins purchased guns after Taylor was shot.

• “A lot of players, for whatever reason, feel the need to carry guns,” Giants president and CEO John Mara said. “It’s a choice that they make. … We’d like to think most of them are licensed. We’re not sure that’s always the case.”

The players in the NFL are grown men. Why do they need the NFL to follow them around and essentially spy on them? And why is the NFL recommending that their players don’t own guns? Lawful and responsible gun ownership is a good thing. If the players don’t understand the legal and ethical ownership and use of guns then the NFL ought to hire somebody to teach them.

I don’t blame the players for wanting to protect themselves. Some of them are famous and might have problems with criminals knowing who they are and wanting to rob them or whatever. So I don’t blame the players at all for owning and carrying firearms.

Obviously it’s incumbent on the players – as it is on all gun owners – to make safe handling and carry of firearms their top priority. The recent situation with Burress seems to be a situation where there might have been some negligence and that’s not good. But NY City doesn’t get a pass either given its totally corrupt and oppressive gun laws.

Burress would have been much better if he had avoided that place altogether. But if he had to be there then he certainly was within his rights as an American to carry a firearm for self-protection despite New York City’s disgusting and unconstitutional laws. See the thread at Northeastshooters for a discussion about Burress.

I don’t blame the players for blowing off the NFL either. Ultimately every person is responsible for his/her self-defense and the NFL is not going to be there to protect them all of the time. The league should understand that and understand that the players are human beings and human beings will always do what they think is necessary to survive.

The NFL should get in touch with the NRA and organize some classes that teach gun safety and that cover gun laws. Make it a requirement for every player to attend and teach them the right way to think about guns and to safely own and carry them for personal protection.