A lot of people have been asking me "Charley Nelson, what do you think of the Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, et. al. situation in the NFL?" Actually, they don't usually put in the "et. al." part. I added that on my own. But the question remains the same. So Charley Nelson will tell you what he thinks.

I know the sport of boxing quite well. There are some great people who are or were professional boxers. Wonderful people, wonderful friends. There are also, I'm afraid, some not so great people who are boxers. Many of these boxers grew up using their fists to solve all of their problems. Rather than be condemned for that, they were rewarded. They earned a career. They won fame and glory. So it's not too difficult to understand that some boxers have trouble separating what is appropriate behavior inside the ring from what is appropriate behavior outside the ring.

I see the same thing in the NFL. Pro football players grew up as big, tough kids who could knock other kids into the next zip code. Quite apart from being punished for it, they were rewarded. All of their life they have been treated special because they were big and tough and knew how to knock other kids senseless.  High school was a breeze for them because they were the big football star! Colleges begged for them to come to their school because "You're big and tough and can knock the crap out of people!"

Again, I am sure that most NFL players are good, decent men. But again I am not at all surprised that a good many of them have trouble distinguishing what is appropriate on the field from what is appropriate off the field.

Ours is a society that revels in violence. Truly, it is. Of course we want that violence to be contained to the playing fields and our movie and TV screens, but sometimes it's not going to be. Sometimes a man who grew up being told that his violent ways are a wonderful gift is going to use that wonderful gift the wrong way.

This is not in anyway meant to defend Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson et. al. What these men did disgusts me. It is to say, however, that the NFL has a serious problem on its hands. The expression "tip of the iceberg" comes to mind.