Do Cowboys have a penchant for acquiring criminals?

After signing La’el Collins, the questions surfaces of whether the Dallas Cowboys have a propensity of acquiring troubled football players?

How does one go about calling out one’s boss or ridiculing them for stupid questions in a subtle and tasteful manner? Because every intelligent sports writer in America ought to take a one-hour intensive class on the subject right now, today, starting in the next 15 minutes.

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Why? Because as ridiculous as it seems, the higher ups in the media are going to try to sell the notion of the Dallas Cowboys being a franchise with a propensity or natural disposition to acquire troubled players, ones who are criminals.

Standing back just a bit, it’s not terribly surprising such a narrative would arise from the surface. It’s been almost 2.5 years since Cowboys defensive tackle Josh Brent killed teammate Jerry Brown in a car crash, only to have the team bring him back to play for them.

This offseason, after putting together their most successful season since last winning the Super Bowl in 1996, the ‘Boys have signed defensive Greg Hardy, who was suspended all of last season due to an arrest for domestic violence, drafted Randy Gregory in the second-round Friday, and Thursday signed undrafted free agent La’el Collins Thursday, after he went undrafted this past weekend, amid uncertainties about his involvement in the murder of an ex-girlfriend.

It’s one of the classic games for children–or nowadays high schoolers–put two or three items in word form next to one another and test them to see if they can figure out which one does not belong. The game is, or at least should be, called, “One of these is not like the other”.

If we were actually playing such a game for the Dallas Cowboys, we’d immediately recognize the one “not like the other” is La’el Collins. Collins is, by all accounts, completely innocent. He was never considered by Baton Rouge Police as a suspect, and was only wanted for questioning. The police only wanted to know what he knew.

Others will point to the Dez Bryant rumors–supposedly there was a video somewhere in never never land which featured Bryant doing worse things than Ray Rice did to his then-fiance, now wife.

None of it, though, proves a darn thing. Is there an NFL franchise in the last five years who has had perfect citizenship among its entire roster? In a quick perusal of the NFL arrest database (yes such a thing exists), only the Houston Texans have not had a player arrested from their team in the past five years. Only one other team has, in fact, made it longer than two years–the San Diego Chargers–without a player on the roster being arrested.

The reality, and it’s certainly a sensitive subject which must be handled with caution, is the average NFL player is black, grew up in poverty and (probably most importantly to why someone may commit a crime) plays an incredibly aggressive sport which is tough to come down from when off the field.

The point is black people tend to be arrested more in this country–not because of a moral insufficiency, but likely because of racial profiling. People who grow up in poverty, for similar, but also different, reasons, too, end up committing crimes more often.

The point is the NFL, and not just the Dallas Cowboys, have an arrest and crime issue. But in reality so does every sport and business in the world.

It’s only more announced when you are the NFL or one of its marquee teams, the Dallas Cowboys.

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