I just think things like fantasy football and especially the internet has just made everyone ruder. It’s so easy to demonize each other from a distance. Yes we need money to survive but please remember that you can have a lot to live on but nothing to live for.

I know that Martavis has his football band of brothers to help him and I hope someone outside of that circle is helping him too.

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I mentioned this to the friend, and she said she didn’t give him any dairy. She was breast-feeding, and intended to continue to do so for at least another six months or so. I pointed out that she would need to give up dairy as well, because the protein is delivered through the breast milk. Her response really startled me, because it was so different from most anything else I knew about her. She said “If that means I would have to give up cheese, he’ll just have to keep having ear infections!”

She was a very loving mother who I would have assumed would do whatever was needed for her kids. But this was different. Can an adult live without dairy products for six months, or six years, or sixty? Of course. They are a delicious delivery system for various nutrients, but you can easily get those in other ways. But she wouldn’t even consider the possibility this might help her son, because she would have to give them up for a relatively short period of time. In my mind, she was addicted to dairy products. Not perhaps in the classic sense of someone who is addicted to heroin, but addicted nonetheless.

And I still contend that if, knowing he could lose everything he has worked towards for the better part of his life (a job in the NFL and, presumably, the money that goes with it,) Bryant can’t stop smoking pot (or whatever his ingestion method of choice is,) he is addicted. I suppose you could contend that he is merely unable to forego present reward for future benefit, as demonstrated in the famous experiments conducted with preschool age children about delayed gratification, but there are a lot of things he has to forego presently for future benefits—eating more than his caloric needs (yes, that makes me a food addict : ), sleeping in and consequently being late to team meetings, working out instead of playing an additional round of Call of Duty, what have you. He’s in terrific shape, so he’s been clearly able to make those calculations. This says that something else is at work.

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That said, I’m unsure of the link between fantasy football and this type of attitude. I say that because I care deeply about character issues and the lives of the players. The stories and struggles of the young men who play the game and I never get tired of hearing the triumphs of a Wiiliam Gay, Baron Batch, Le’veon Bell or Sammy Coates.

I have been in one ore more fantasy leagues for at least fifteen years. I enjoy it immensely. I will say all the leagues I’ve been in were not money leagues. I was in one once and hated it. People get stupid when there is money on the line. Also, they were not leagues where a money value is assigned to the players. I have no interest in those. You could not get me to go to a Fan Duel type site for love or money. Maybe there’s a difference between a social league which is done as an amusement and the money leagues.

Does fantasy football drive the attitude or are those who see players as commodities attracted to it? I obviously have no idea. I don’t know whether the money league players care a whit about Martavis’s struggles or the personal troubles of any player, except perhaps maybe players on their favorite teams and maybe not even then. From reading the comments for years over at BTSC, I know there are a lot of fans who looks only at wins and losses. Fire the coach, cut Troy, Ike, Willie Gay, Jarvis Jones, Shazier, Gilbert, Mitchell, Blake. Trade Pouncey, Ben, Blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, I love my “social” fantasy league and see nothing inconsistent with caring about players. Of course, I’m not a typical fantasy owner. I pick Steelers if I can, I refuse to pitch certain players, no matter how much they would help my team, all Brady, Randy Moss, Jamal Lewis are some l remember. I like to win, but I like to root for my players, so I try to get players I like. I would have no fun winning a league with Brady as my QB.

Well, this is long winded. Sorry. My gut is that money players care less about players, but I don’t think it’s a cause and effect.

I’ll take one more small exception with Rebecca’s article. I don’t believe that someone who smokes dope or takes anything he knows will get him suspended is an addict. Now, I don’t pretend to know what would go through the mind of, let’s say Le’veon to smoke dope in a car while driving. He said in the ESPN show Wednesday that it was his first time. Sorry, kid, can’t but that. I can’t pretend to know what was in his head if it was his first or 39th time. The decision to do so is so reckless in light of the risks, I can’t fathom the thought process, if there was any. Somehow, though, I don’t believe every NFL player who smokes weed is addicted. I’m not sure anybody is addicted to pot, but I’m not qualified to even begin that determination.

The remainder of the article is fantastic. I agree totally. I, growing up with two parents who held me accountable, expected me to behave and achieve and kept me safe from the outside world, cannot truly understand how any of these kids manage to survive environments which probably would have destroyed me, and go on to achieve great things, even with bumps in the road. I do admit of having been judgmental at times on certain behaviors. Even so, I believe in redemption and those who stumble, fall and get up deserve our admiration. Many of those who stumble, fall and can’t get up at least deserve some compassion.

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