Seau Speech the NFL wouldn't allow

[MikeO]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/sports/football/junior-seau-hall-of-fame-sydney-seau-speech.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0

Sydney Seau gave the speech the NFL wouldn't allow her to do in her hotel room and released it. Great speech and it makes the NFL look really bad because they didn't let her give this speech and relegated her to just an interview from the back of the stage.

[Spider-Dan]

I thought it was crazy of them to consider allowing her to speak.  It would have been a completely unforced error.

The HOF had an already-existing policy for posthumous inductions; the alibi is built-in.  Why should they break that policy specifically to allow someone who is suing them to speak?  It makes no sense, and creates a totally unnecessary precedent for all the future CTE players that may develop problems.

This is basically like the Big Ben decision from years ago, only they got it right this time.  To my knowledge, before Big Ben's rape charges, the league only took action after a conviction or plea deal.  Goodell shot himself in the leg by insisting that the league must get involved even when charges are dropped, and the Ray Rice fiasco is a direct result of that decision.  Now the commissioner's office is expected to play as morality police and handle the cases that district attorneys reject.

[Phishfan]

Spider, are you seriously suggesting that the NFL should not have suspended Rice? Also, let's be clear on Ray Rice's situation. It wasn't like the DA simply decided to drop the charges against Rice. He was put into a pre-trial intervention program. This is a very common practice for a first time offender. Rice was not free of conditions. Typically it involved counceling, classes, and reporting to officers. It is similar to probation but a little more lenient (no travel restrictions, less drug testing, etc.).

As for Seau and the topic at hand, I really haven't studied the situation but my understanding is that there was a policy in place. Was she ever told they would consider altering the policy?

[MikeO]

Comes down to spirit of the policy vs the letter of the policy. The policy is in place because if someone who played in the 1930's or 40's gets in, there is nobody left to speak about them. And their great grand-kid gets up and says stuff but he hardly knew his great grandfather and its a big waste of time. Policy wasn't really created for situations like this of someone young who has died. And its not a steadfast law it is a policy they can make special consideration for and an exception if need be.  Seau after he retired said IF he ever made it into the Hall of Fame he wanted his daughter to speak and induct him. He said this in numerous public interviews when he was alive. The "new policy" states that anyone who is dead just gets a video played that is produced by NFL Films, it's 2 minutes longer than anybody else's video but they get no speakers at the event, just the slightly longer video.  And NFL Films makes the video and has total control over what is in it.

NFL Films said they would use an old interview with Sydney Seau and put clips of it in the video and that would be good enough. The Seau family thought, jesus if you are gonna use Sydney Seau and an old interview then let her speak at the event herself or at least do a new interview not one from when she was a little kid. Don't take an old interview and use clips out of context to spin a story you want. I mean they (NFL Films) still have control over what is in the video and final say about that. Not like she is going to go off on some anti-NFL concussion rant and slip it into a video.

And then the NFL in typical fashion washes its hands of this. Saying hey, its a Pro Football Hall of Fame not the NFL hall of fame, we have no say in this. But of course the NFL put enough pressure on the Hall of Fame (and is the hall of fames biggest donor) to make sure someone with a lawsuit against them wasn't going to speak.  It took public outcry from the public and the Hall of Fame players, (because most of the hall of famers who go and are on stage were close with Seau) to get his daughter a couple minutes in an interview behind the stage to speak during his induction and for NFL Films to use a new interview with her.   Once again the NFL takes something that is so simple and makes it overly complicated and difficult.  Just let the girl speak for crying out loud. It would have been a great moment.  Instead she is relegated to standing behind the stage and asked 2 questions by a reporter. Totally silly.

[Spider-Dan]

Spider, are you seriously suggesting that the NFL should not have suspended Rice?

I am saying that the NFL should not be getting involved in any of these outside issues (domestic violence, DUI, shooting a gun in a club, sexual assault, bar brawls, etc.) unless the player is convicted of a crime.  The league should be focusing on competitive violations: PEDs, fake crowd noise, underinflated balls, coaches tripping players, and the like.

Also, let's be clear on Ray Rice's situation. It wasn't like the DA simply decided to drop the charges against Rice.

Ray Rice was not convicted of any crime.  I think a conviction should be the bright-line determinant as to whether or not additional sanctions from the league are appropriate.

[Brian Fein]

Please remember this is not the NFL hall of fame.  it is the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  Although the NFL is a gigantic part of the events, there are a number of professional football league's represented here.  I don't understand why the NFL has governance over the proceedings.

[Spider-Dan]

Technically, they don't.  That's why (as MikeO noted) the NFL said, "What, us?  No, we have nothing to do with this rule, guys!  The Pro Football Hall of Fame is a completely independent organization that totally has nothing to do with the NFL!  Say, what's that behind you?" and then ran off.

[MikeO]

Please remember this is not the NFL hall of fame.  it is the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  Although the NFL is a gigantic part of the events, there are a number of professional football league's represented here.  I don't understand why the NFL has governance over the proceedings.

The NFL is the biggest donor to the Hall of Fame. Let's be honest they are the only donor that matters financially. So the Hall of Fame pretty much shuts up and keeps them (the NFL) happy and does what the NFL wants.

The HOF did nothing wrong, they just followed their policy. But jesus christ the NFL and HOF comes off looking really bad here and it could have been handled much better.

[Phishfan]

I'll be honest, I personally don't care. I heard about this and never gave it a thought all weekend. Is anyone really bothered by this or are we just trying to make waves and have something to talk about before real football starts?

[MikeO]

I'll be honest, I personally don't care. I heard about this and never gave it a thought all weekend. Is anyone really bothered by this or are we just trying to make waves and have something to talk about before real football starts?

Many people though it was kind of cruel to the family. And honestly it was. Then after hearing the speech she would have given it made no sense and it was just the NFL/HOF being cruel to the family of a dead guy.

[Phishfan]

Who do you mean by many people though? I hear that phrase all the time and I just wonder how much of it really equates to many people and how much of it equates to the media trying to shove a story at us. I did not hear one mention of this by anyone in real life (by that I mean outside of media sources). Either I run in isolated circles (and I was in several social settings over the weekend) or I don't think it is really that big of a deal to the general public.

I'm curious, was this an actual topic of conversation for anyone in their real life over the course of the last week? Not that I don't think it is a topic worth discussing, I'm just curious if anyone had even given it a thought outside of hearing it reported.

[MikeO]

Who do you mean by many people though? I hear that phrase all the time and I just wonder how much of it really equates to many people and how much of it equates to the media trying to shove a story at us. I did not hear one mention of this by anyone in real life (by that I mean outside of media sources). Either I run in isolated circles (and I was in several social settings over the weekend) or I don't think it is really that big of a deal to the general public.

I'm curious, was this an actual topic of conversation for anyone in their real life over the course of the last week? Not that I don't think it is a topic worth discussing, I'm just curious if anyone had even given it a thought outside of hearing it reported.

It was a major news story that got a lot of play and upset many people (ie football fans.) If you and your circle of friends didn't talk about it, ok that's cool. But many football fans did  talk about this over the past couple weeks and it did upset many people.

[Tenshot13]

My circle of friends are all huge football fans, and none of us even cared about this story.

[Spider-Dan]

I still don't understand why Sydney Seau should be able to use the HOF as a platform for her (family's) issues with the NFL.  Like, I don't understand the grave disservice that was done to her by not letting her speak there, when no relative of any other deceased inductee was ever allowed to speak there, either.

Why would any organization give someone a platform to bash them on?  It just doesn't make sense.

[MikeO]

My circle of friends are all huge football fans, and none of us even cared about this story.

I'm not saying everyone needed to care or did care. Just said that a lot of people did. That's all.