Rae Carruth comes to mind. Promising wide receiver drafted by the Carolina Panthers who spent his NFL career locked up behind bars (still there) for conspiring to kill his pregnant Girl Friend, all because he didn’t want to have to pay child support payments.
If it means anything, I understand what Talib did. He ran to the defense of his sister. LIke I posted before, I don’t have a sister, but I have a mother, and if anyone tried to hurt her, I don’t know what I would do.
Speaking of Mothers, Talib’s is also charged; she too shot at Billings, Talib’s sisters’ boyfriend. Maybe it doesn’t take much now to see where the pattern comes from.
Aqib Talib is a very polite young man. I met him downstairs in the club section after the Seattle game in his rookie season of 2008. He spoke with Paul Stewart of BucPower.com, and he sounded like a nice young man. But over time, we’ve gotten to know his other side too.
The side that reacts, that does not think. Too many reporters will wake up this morning saying ” I told you so”. They may be right. They warned Head Coach Raheem Morris of Talib’s increasingly violent unpredictability.
Tony Dungy would have cut him probably, but Raheem is not Tony Dungy. It is high time fans figure that one out. But Morris has enabled and put up with Talib and the excuses for far too long. The list was starting to add up…the rookie symposium where he was supposed to learn how to exist as an NFL player, he gets into a fist fight. The Cab incident, which got him suspended last season a week before the NFL handed down Tanard Jackson’s one year expulsion.
Morris jumped to his corner’s defense when reports came out of a late night London, England shouting match in the lobby. Morris said Talib never disrespected him. When in fact, he continues to do so, by relying on his instincts at a time when he shouldn’t. Few things really separate us from the animals in the wild. But one of them is the ability to reason. Any Dog, Fox, Cat, Racoon, whatever, can fight and react. Only a human being can use reason and do the right thing.
Ask yourself this; what would Josh Freeman do if someone did the same thing to his sister? Thats when you understand that Aqib Talib is probably done with his NFL career, and its a shame. He was probably pro bowl bound.
If there is anyone looking for a silver lining in this, its Jackson. The beleaguered safety is now probably secure in his position, at least until his next transgression, when and if he returns; he is eligible after the second week of the season.
I for one will NOT issue an I told you so; I, having had my run ins with the law in my past, understand where Talib was coming from when he did what he did. I don’t condone the action, but I understand it. Maybe he will get off on this one, and only suffer a 6 game suspension like Ben Roethlisberger. By all accounts Talib is a real leader on the field, on a team that really needs them if they are going to continue to grow into a maturing playoff squad.
If it didn’t happen already, the resigning of Ronde Barber would have been done now by all means. The Bucs will go into 2011 with either E.J. Biggers or Myron Lewis as leader at Corner position.
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