HBO premiered a new football-themed series a month ago: Ballers. This channel is the same one that produces Hard Knocks, the documentary series that closely follows the day-to-day training camp of an NFL team (this year it's the Houston Texans). In Ballers, the protagonist is Spencer Strasmore, a former player turned financial manager played by Dwayne Johnson, who helps his friends and teammates in the league solve all kinds of problems. Let's say Strasmore is the voice of experience who knows how to deal with extreme situations such as sex scandals that leave a league star without a team or the financial bankruptcy of a young promise due to bad company.
With only three episodes aired, the network made the decision to renew the series for a second season and from here, I want to propose a candidate to appear in the next season: Sheldon Richardson. It is true that they could mix the problems of Vernon in the series (star defensive tackle for the Cowboys with off-field issues in search of a new contract) and Sheldon's real story, but given the circumstances, this deserves an exclusive plot.
The succession of events is as follows:
Sheldon Richardson is suspended for four games for the use of banned substances. He tested positive for marijuana. The suspension is announced on July 2nd. Once the sanction is announced, the player takes care, through a statement and his twitter account, to apologize to everyone and assure that he will learn from his mistake and it will not happen again. I repeat, this happened on July 2nd.
Yesterday, July 30th, the first training of the training camp takes place and Richardson trains with the second team while rookie Leonard Williams takes his place among the starters. After training, Todd Bowles states that this situation will continue throughout the training camp. Richardson, in his first statements to the press after the sanction was announced, repeats his speech of remorse.
Hours later, it comes to light that Sheldon Richardson will have to go to trial on October 27th for charges of excessive speed and resisting arrest in his native Missouri. As if this were not enough, the details of the story are even worse:
A police officer observed him driving at high speed (radar caught him going over 200 km/h) in a race with another vehicle. When he saw a patrol car following him, Richardson ran several red lights and turned off the lights of his car to evade the police. Finally, he stopped in a residential area where the police officer was able to catch him. In the car were Sheldon, two other men, and a 12-year-old child. Under the passenger seat, there was a loaded gun and both the car and the detainees smelled like marijuana.
These events took place on July 14th. Two weeks after his suspension for using marijuana was announced. Two weeks after he apologized for his mistake and promised not to repeat it. In addition, it becomes public on the same day that he repeats the same words through the press microphones.
The consequences of this extremely serious incident can be terrible for the player. Anonymous voices from within the league have already come out saying that his career is over after this. We will have to see which path the NFL takes within the new sanctioning regime imposed by Roger Goodell but combining a drug suspension with this arrest does not bode well for Richardson.
The fact that the trial is at the end of October could allow him to play this season and the suspension to be for 2016. This would give some leeway to the other party involved, the team, to make their own decisions. Undoubtedly, this is going to directly affect the current negotiations with Mo Wilkerson and the future ones, if there are any, with Richardson. The Jets cannot have a quiet offseason, it is proven.
Just a few hours before this matter came to light, the owner of the Miami Dolphins, Stephen Ross, commented to the press that he was not convinced by the series Ballers because it tried to make the life around the NFL more exaggerated and eccentric. Once again, reality surpasses fiction. At least the writers of Ballers will be able to take something good from this regrettable incident.