
Originally Posted by
MykePM
It seems painfully obvious in looking at the Hernandez and Goodson situations this offseason that some players should not ever play for their hometown teams. If a player comes from a stable family background (like say, D'Brickashaw and hopefully Aboushi), it may actually be a plus for them to have a strong support structure around them. However, when a player has a history of off-field issues, particularly related to having ties to "the wrong crowd", the best possible thing for them (and in some cases, perhaps their only hope) would seem to be to get them away from the area they grew up in and provide support in breaking all ties with "friends" who would lead them down the wrong path.
While some teams reportedly downgraded Hernandez's draft ranking severely based on his history, in retrospect the Pats maybe should have taken him off their board entirely because of the close proximity he would have to the people he grew up with - people who could potentially draw him into situations that could lead to this type of criminal activity.
By that same token, other than some paternity and payment delinquency issues that Rich Cimini was all too happy to reveal to the world, Mike Goodson hadn't gotten into any serious issues with the law until he moved back to New Jersey, where he was originally from. Should the Jets have seen that coming?
I wonder if Curtis Martin's life would have turned out very different if he had been drafted by his hometown Steelers instead of New England -- where his main influence was a strong father figure in Parcells instead of the people he knew from the rough environment he grew up in.
Bookmarks