In the NFL, a lot is made of “distractions.” Michael Sam comes out as gay? That’s a distraction. We can’t have that in the locker room. Myron Rolle is named a Rhodes Scholar and wants to follow academic pursuits before joining the NFL? That’s a distraction. There’s no place for him in the NFL. And of course, any sort of criminal charges are a distraction, causing reporters to ask coaches non-football questions and make them grumble about “no comment during an open investigation.” So you can understand why a football team might have a vested interest in heading off any potential distractions from criminal inquiries.
Seth Williams is the District Attorney of Philadelphia, and on Thursday he disclosed five years worth of previously unreported gifts he’d received while in office. They range from trips at a fellow lawyer’s Miami vacation home to a free roofing job, and they certainly give off the air of impropriety. But among those gifts is a notable one: since 2011, Williams has been receiving complimentary sideline passes to Eagles games.
Williams is the same DA who declined to press charges against former Eagle LeSean McCoy for getting into a fistfight with off-duty cops, or against Nelson Agholor when the Eagles wideout was accused of sexual assault. It’s impossible to say whether Williams’ relationship with the Eagles colored his decisions in those cases, but the receipt of those passes certainly qualifies as a conflict of interest.
The DA will certainly face fallout for this — he released all this information while reportedly under investigation by the IRS, after all — but still open is the question of why the Eagles gifted those passes to Williams in the first place. If they were simply a gift from a friend, as Williams said, then you could make the argument that one is less likely to aggressively prosecute a friend. Words were likely never spoken about the perks the Eagles might receive in exchange for those gifts. They never had to be.
It’s hard to imagine the Eagles will receive any backlash for their part in this. After all, it’s not illegal to give away something like a sideline pass. And in this case, it’s simply good business. For just one little gift to the right person, the team has a first line of defense against certain distractions. Of course, the innocent people hurt by the players may feel as though the Eagles had a hand in denying their chance at justice To the Eagles, though, those individuals were likely just distractions too.
(Via Philadelphia Inquirer)
