Give McFadden a Chance

As time ticked down on the Raiders’ draft clock I sat anxiously holding my breath.  It wasn’t because I had located a player that I dreamed to watch in the black and silver for the next decade.  In fact, I held no stock in who they selected on Saturday.  My team was slotted 12 spots lower, and the truth is, I’ve treated the football Cardinals casually over the years, so I didn’t really care who they got either.  My whole interest Saturday was that the Raiders didn’t select one man.  Then, as time expired, my heart dropped as they selected Darren McFadden with the fourth pick.  The only way this could have turned out worst is if the Bengals had selected him.

I feel for this guy.  With Barry Bonds out of Major League Baseball, the sports media needed a new whopping boy, and for some reason they selected McFadden.  He’s been lambasted for every sin that his family has committed over the last four decades.  By landing in Oakland it only helps play into this angle that has been created.  It’s where troubled players belong, just like prisoners belong in Alcatraz. 

I understand that he comes from a troubled past, he’s got a brother in each of the two major street gangs in America, his mother smoked crack, and he has two babies, which he may or may not be the father of.   This is all great and it should raise some flags, but can someone please tell me what McFadden has done to deserve this ‘thug’ label?  Was he in a gang?  Did he smoke or sell crack?  And please, tell me, what professional athlete doesn’t have a couple illegitimate children running around?  Leave the baby stuff for The Maury Show, McFadden has the money to pay support, and isn’t the fact that he is claiming these kids without a DNA test a testament to his character?

As soon as the Raiders made their pick the little digs had already started.  “How fitting” seemed to be the natural response.  Maybe Oakland is the Alcatraz for troubled football players, but McFadden is clean.  He has no record, he’s never been in actual trouble, there’s one single incident when he got handcuffed for getting worked up while his brother was in a fight…Wait, he was protecting his own?  Excuse me for a second, but isn’t loyalty a good quality for a football player?  How is this any different from a lineman stepping in when there’s a scuffle involving his quarterback?  If someone were to throw punches in such a situation, he’d be heralded for being such a good teammate.  If McFadden would have stood back and just watched his brother take a loss, I’d be worried.  You don’t want to be in the trenches with a guy that isn’t going to stand up for his own.

The gang affiliation is a legitimate concern, but we all have family members that run afoul of the law in one way or another, the question is, how does that play into your character?  McFadden has said himself that he probably would have been absorbed into that life if he didn’t have football, but here’s the thing, he does have football.  So far it has been his saving grace, why shouldn’t it continue to be?  It seems crazy to me that people assume that now that he has money he’s going to start rocking a red flag out of his back pocket.  If anything, the reverse would be true. 

I know, I know, just because these guys make the league it doesn’t mean that they escape their past.  You’ll bring up Chris Henry, Maurice Clarett and Pacman Jones as examples of ones past effecting their present.  The difference is that those players were in actual trouble when they entered the league; the spin on this stuff surrounding McFadden has all been manufactured.  Just because someone has a shaky past doesn’t mean that they are guaranteed to create embarassing headlines.  At the same time, no one is immune.  No one had any reason to worry about Mike Vick, yet he sits in prison.  Ray Lewis was relatively clean for the most part prior to his shooting incident, and what about Rae Carruth? 

The point is that we should give this guy a chance to create his own rep.  The spin on this is ridiculous.  I’m not trying to exonorate him from the scrutiny he’s recieving, it’s justified.  Teams should look into his past, this is serious business, we aren’t picking sides for a raquetball game, but the media has just made way too much of it.  Let’s wait a little while and see how he acts before we have him fitted for his state issued prison gear.