honestly, I don't know why anyone believes the guy deserves a fair shake at this point. as far as I'm concerned, the burden of proof is on his end to prove that waiting six weeks after he could apply for reinstatement isn't just another in a long line of stupid decisions on his part. he's done everything in the world to deserve that kind of doubt.
Well said. I'm all for innocent until proven guilty in a legal sense, but once you're found guilty the burden of proof rests on the guilty party.
And people act like he just needs to get back to "even" with the Cardinals. For instance, if he was an 8 out of 10 on a scale of trust, people act like after dropping that to 0 that all he needs to do is get back to an 8, and I disagree with that. After destroying the team trust, he can't just get back to where he was before and call it even, because where he was before obviously wasn't close to good enough.
Does he deserve forgiveness? Obviously, I believe we're a nation founded on forgiveness frankly--people can and do change their lives. But it isn't easy, and it isn't as easy as going into rehab or taking some domestic violence classes and checking all the right boxes.
Tyrann Matheiu is the epitome of elevating his trustworthiness to levels it wasn't at before. Look at the juxtaposition of how they've each handled their situations (I should note that I wasn't on board with the pick and thought it would be a complete disaster). He almost lost his whole career before it even got started, but he gave media interviews, he talked about his issues, he got help for his issues, he talked publicly about it, he talked publicly about how it effected him and what he was doing to correct the situation. That's all before he even entered the NFL, mind you, and yet he still discussed it after completing his programs and changing his life. He wanted people to know. It was important to him that people didn't view him a certain way, it was important that people understood how seriously he took football, how seriously he took his teammates (seriously, listen to Tyrann talk about his teammates and coaches and family after his issues in college up until the current day, he values what a team means and what he can bring to that team and how he let them down).
I haven't heard much of that from 'Wash. He's a professional athlete and one of the best at his position, and could call a press conference at any time and have a lot more exposure than Tyrann did. Tyrann went out on a limb, doing it every step of the process, because he had no idea if anyone even gave a crap, for all he knew scouts viewed him as a total waste and a bust. Yet he did it anyway because he was changing his life, it wasn't just words. Wasn't just media garbage or filler. He did it because it meant something to his team, family, coaches, etc, and even if he didn't get drafted he wanted to take the blame. Again, I haven't heard that from 'Wash yet.
There's a difference between real and perceived change. In one instance I know it's real, because he basically did a Hari Kari in the media and emptied his guts multiple times over a period of
years. He continues to speak up about things that matter to his character. In the other instance I have no clue what's going on. I haven't even heard the dude say he wants to play football.
