The National Football League, in its infinite wisdom, has set up a system to investigate the off-the-field activities of its players. After the USA's initial yawn, we should start thinking through this action with a farm more critical eye.
I have held a security clearance for my work for many years, which requires a periodic reinvestigation (PR) of my background at a pretty detailed level, to ensure that I could not be blackmailed based on "adverse information", i.e., dirty secrets whose discovery would cause me harm. I submit to these PRs readily, because I understand their need in defense of my country, and because the investigation is being done by a legitimate government authority.
I'm a reasonable active football fan, but I have to say that I have a lot of issue with the NFL's actions. As with any employer, there is a limit to what can be acceptable behavior, but I'm really troubled when the employer becomes the Nanny State that we laughingly expect our government to be.
There is a continuum. In the highest national security positions, the risk of compromise by blackmail is huge, because the consequences of leaked information to the wrong party can cause immense problems. On the other hand, not to pick on garbage collectors, but I seriously doubt that either their customers or their employers care a great deal what they do in their off-time, as long as they show up on time and collect the trash completely and do their job.
Congress, our legislative branch, has not a shred of business interfering in the relationship between the trash company and its collectors, in terms of what they do in their off-hours. For once, they indeed haven't messed with it. Conversely, the Government has heavily regulated the allowed investigative reach of employees of the Government and contractors who are engaged in classified work -- as it should, absolutely.
So where on this scale, we ask, should the NFL lay, or other sports leagues or, for that matter, every private employer? It is indeed a scale; employees who have access to personal information (e.g., bankers) are comparably subject to blackmail and one could argue that their outside lives are allowably subject to at least a little scrutiny by their employer, or at least a past record should be allowed to disqualify or limit their work. Bankers are like the Government in that way, at least.
That said, the erring should be on the side of the employee, and there's no earthly reason why the NFL or any sports league has any business pursuing investigations of potential illegal activities of its contract employees. There is an entity for that, and it's called "law enforcement."
Ray Rice hit his fiancee, settled his action legally with the local government, and was suspended a couple games based on the severity of the legal outcome. The NFL had no business investigating originally, and it had no business extending the suspension when added video became available, for two reasons:
(1) The NFL is not a law enforcement entity or an investigative unit; if the settlement with local law enforcement equated in the NFL's eyes to a two-game suspension, so be it
(2) The actions of Rice had no effect on his capacity to do his job.
In the other "cause célèbre", Adrian Peterson was suspended for switching his child. The NFL had one legitimate response -- to allow the legal system to take its action and, only then, take whatever action made sense based on the outcome of the legal process. In other words, were he to be acquitted, there would be no grounds for any action by the NFL.
This is what happens when due process breaks down. We are guaranteed it in the Constitution, and it is a logical follow-on that the actions of employers, in cases where the offense does not affect performance of their work, must be commensurate with the outcome of the legal process.
The NFL, and all sports leagues, need to get the heck out of the investigation business. It is not up to them to determine the legal process, and it is incumbent upon them to take action no sooner than, and only in proportion to, the result of that process. Congress should act now to prohibit sports leagues from investigating the off-field activities of their players. If they think a player has done something wrong, call the cops. That's what they're there for.
It's called "due process."
Copyright 2014 by Robert Sutton
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