Again, NFL doesn’t get message
League should relax rules on personal displays
Oh, to be the NFL, where rules and regulations are really more like advisories, able to be altered and adapted as long as it makes the league look good.
If you were paying attention to the NFL scouting combine, you might have seen the story on the league’s website about Maurice Canady, a cornerback from Virginia so troubled by the story of a police officer killed during her first day on the job that he wanted to show her family support.
Canady wrote Ashley Guindon’s name on the cleats he wore during his combine drills, along with the date she was killed and the words “Never Forget.” He plans to auction one of the cleats off, donate the proceeds to a memorial fund for Guindon’s family and give the other cleat to her fellow officers in the Prince William County (Va.) police department.
“It was just a friendly reminder to her family that her hard work did not go in vain,” Canady told USA TODAY Sports. “Hopefully her family received the message that people are grieving with them.”
An admirable gesture, no question.
So was DeAngelo Williams’ eye black with the message “We will find a cure,” especially since he wore it during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Or the green shoes Brandon Marshall wore in 2013 to draw attention to mental health.
Except, instead of promoting those efforts as it did Canady’s, the NFL fined Williams and Marshall for violating the league’s uniform rule prohibiting per- sonal messages.
The NFL says the rule only applies to games, and the combine is not a game. But it smacks as just a tad disingenuous for the league to promote a player doing something when it will fine him for doing the exact same thing a few months later.
Canady is aware of the difference but said no one reminded him of that at the combine. Ezekiel Elliott also used his cleats to make a statement, wearing ones customized to promote domestic violence prevention.
“I wasn’t flashy about it. I wasn’t going around holding my cleats in my hand trying to show people,” Canady said. “It was just me being me. I decided to try and support (Guindon) and her family.” Which is the real point. This wasn’t an attention-grabbing stunt — far from it. Canady’s cousin is a police officer, and he also knows all too well how devastating it is to lose a loved one to senseless violence. His aunt was murdered in 2002, and the stress of her sudden death was too much for his uncle, who died two months later.
More than a decade later, Canady said his family still feels the void left by his aunt’s death. “You feel like it’s a bad dream and you’re going to wake up. But you don’t,” he said.
“I really was not looking for (attention). I was just trying to support her and her family. But a positive outlook for a potential NFL player is a good thing.”
The NFL is filled with great men who do some wonderful things off the field — things that too often get lost in the news about the Greg Hardys of the league. I guarantee more fans are talking about Randy Gregory (four-game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy) this offseason than Anquan Boldin (Walter Payton Man of the Year).
If a player wants to wear eye black or pink cleats to remind people that the battle against cancer is a year-long one or write a name on his shoe to give comfort to a grieving family, that’s something the NFL should embrace. It really wouldn’t be that hard to police, either. Require players to get pre-approval. If they don’t, then you can fine them.
I get that the league doesn’t want to be mistaken for the XFL or be buried under an avalanche of messages. But between its throwback uniforms, alternate jerseys and painting everything pink in October and camouflage in November, the NFL gave up its moral high ground in that fight long ago.
Besides, NBA players have been writing on their shoes for years, and it hasn’t brought about the ruination of that league.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is always saying what great people the league has, how much they care about their communities. Give them a chance to show it.