Women of the NFL - Guess What, They're Right!

Another Patriot woman has opened her mouth and caused controversy.

Last year after the Super Bowl, Tom Brady’s wife Gisele Bundchen lashed out at her husband’s teammates. “My husband cannot (bleep) throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time!” She, like so many others, was critical of key drops on the final drive of the Patriots’ 21-17 defeat. Deion Branch, Aaron Hernandez, and Wes Welker all dropped passes on that final drive.

A year later, and Welker is making headlines again. This time, instead of being the target of a player’s wife’s comments, it is HIS woman who is doing the yelling.

Anna Burns Welker posted a (now deleted) strongly-worded status on her Facebook page after her husband’s team lost 28-13 in the AFC Championship this past weekend. “Proud of my husband and the Pats. By the way, if anyone is bored, please go to Ray Lewis’ Wikipedia page. 6 kids, 4 wives. Acquitted for murder. Paid a family off. Yay. What a hall of fame player! A true role Model!”

Now look, I’m not going to get into a debate about whether or not Ray Lewis is a murderer. I’m not going to extend that to whether or not Ben Roethlisberger raped that girl, whether Kobe raped his accuser, and whether or not O.J. Simpson’s glove truly fit.

However, there are plenty of things that are indeed wrong about this whole situation, and they all stem from the fact that they deal with sports.

First, let’s start with the Ray Lewis “innocence” or guilt.

He was acquitted (let off, found innocent, paid off…you make that decision) of any involvement with the murders of Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar. He pled guilty to obstruction of justice (lying to the police) in a plea bargain. In exchange for the lesser charge, he testified against his two friends.

His punishment: 12 months’ probation and an NFL fine of $250,000.

If he’s not an NFL superstar, he would have served jail time, and lots of it, for obstruction of justice of that magnitude, especially in a murder trial. But because Ray Lewis is an icon, he gets a much lesser charge. But beyond that, he’s practically put into sainthood for “doing the right thing” by the city of Baltimore. Trust me, I’m glad he’s turned his life around, but young people get the message that the “right thing” is turning on your friends to save your own behind from jail time. And they only reason he can get away with it is because he is in the NFL. That’s what’s wrong with sports.

That goes for everybody. Every sports athlete. Every celebrity. Every politician. There should be no special treatment for ANYBODY. Sports seems to be the worst though. Take a look at somebody like Kenny Britt who has had nine incidents with the police since joining the NFL in 2009. Look at the countless others who get DUI charges and are driving again in a few weeks (and never get suspended or anything by their team). If I got a DUI, I’d be without a license for a year and probably be fired.

Now, let’s look at step two of this incident: Mrs. Welker.

Since her tirade on Facebook, she has apologized for her actions, giving both teams credit for their great seasons. She said her emotions got the best of her after the loss.

I’m going to make the same argument: why should Anna Welker be different from any of the others across the country who said the same (if not more vulgar) thing about Ray Lewis? Why should she have to apologize? Why should Gisele have to apologize for what she said about the Patriots dropped passes when every other person in the world who watched that game said the same thing? Why should Gisele be put into the spotlight when others said much worse to Hernandez and Welker, including death threats?

The answer is simple: spotlight. We put them there, so they stay there. And so we they are supposed to be the role models and “do the right thing.”

How is that different from Ray Lewis? Why can he get away with not doing the right thing, yet these ladies get thrown under the bus for saying the same (non-criminal) things that millions across the country are saying?

Is it APPROPRIATE to say these things? No, probably not. And I’m about as far from a Ray Lewis fan as there is, but I agree it’s not correct to be saying these things. But in a world of social media where anybody can tweet anything in the spur of the moment and have it spread across the universe in the world of Cyber Space, things like that are going to happen. Death threats? That’s too far, and people who make them should be prosecuted. But somebody speaking their mind in a non-threatening way about something. That’s called free speech, and last I checked, that’s the most valuable right that Americans have.

Mrs. Brady and Mrs. Welker had to apologize for their comments, when they are blatantly honest and true statements that everybody else in the world is thinking. That’s what’s wrong with sports.