This is a time when everyone should root for the Lions.
I'm not talking about the remaining 12 games of a season long since over, but rather the organization's challenge in squeezing every dime out of Charles Rogers' pockets now that an arbitrator ruled in the Lions' favor in their grievance against the NFL players' association.
Rogers must give the Lions $8.5 million of the $14.2 million they paid him in a guaranteed signing bonus after they drafted him second overall in the 2003 draft.
Whether the Lions will get that money is another story. It will likely involve a lengthy legal fight, but the Lions shouldn't shy from the battle. The more important message is holding those selfish millionaire athletes accountable for openly flouting the rules.
Rogers violated the NFL's substance-abuse policy when he failed a drug test three years ago. It was his third failed test, and the Lions successfully argued that violation triggered a codicil in Rogers' rookie contract that negated part of his signing bonus.
Rogers laughed off the Lions' position, saying they could come after him all they wanted because he didn't have much of that $14.2 million left.
I'm wondering if he's laughing now.
Rogers should be an example of reckless excess from which every future top-ranked draft pick should learn. The Lions shouldn't let him off the hook. If it means garnishing every check for the rest of Rogers' life, then the Lions' strategy should be "forward down the field."
No politics in sports? Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel's insistence that his players don't get actively involved in the presidential campaign only further perpetuates the stereotype that today's professional athlete is too dim to think beyond his respective sport.
What's wrong with athletes speaking up and taking a public stand?
If they're U.S. citizens, they're allowed to become actively involved in political discourse and vote.
Linebacker Willie McGinest has done local commercials supporting Barack Obama, and quarterback Brady Quinn and offensive tackle Joe Thomas have publicly pledged their support to John McCain. Crennel expressed concerns that what has become an increasingly divisive national campaign could drive a wedge through a Browns locker room trying to hang together in the wake of a disappointing start.
If anything, Crennel should embrace the fact that he has got some players unafraid to exercise those fragments of their brains that aren't consumed with football.
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