Defend Ricky? Why?

[endorphin]

Failed a 4th drug test.

Has he been suspended? Has the appeals process been completed?

See this is the lynch mob mentality I speak of. He has been accused (key word here...accused). You and a few others here have him convicted already.

 

[GRAPEAPE]

He did in fact seek help...

Like many people with psychological ailments, the prescribed drug works so well that the patient feels better and stops taking the drug, thus a relapse occurs. Mental sickness is far different than physical my friend.

We don’t have all the facts as it relates to RW’s drug use. Many people just look at the simplest thing they can understand…Rick is a pothead!

I just happen to not be one of those people.

No I really get it. My mother is a manic depressive, and my sister is almost as obsessive compulsive as Monk. Some of my good friends are potheads, and they are great people. 1 difference being they don't work in an enviornment that says you can't do drugs for fear of losing your job. Believe me there are worse things ricky could do other than smoke some weed. The problem is you have to know the rules and abide by them. he hasn't.

 

[Superself]

He did in fact seek help...

Like many people with psychological ailments, the prescribed drug works so well that the patient feels better and stops taking the drug, thus a relapse occurs. Mental sickness is far different than physical my friend.

We don’t have all the facts as it relates to RW’s drug use. Many people just look at the simplest thing they can understand…Rick is a pothead!

I just happen to not be one of those people.

Don't we at least know he either failed a test or did not show up for one?

If either of those are true, what else is there to prove? What would lead anyone to believe that these tests were faulty or the league tried to pull a fast one on Ricky all of a sudden?
How can we give Ricky the benefit of the doubt when he has lied numerous times before?
What are the valid excuses this time around?

 

[jspchief]

Has he been suspended? Has the appeals process been completed?

See this is the lynch mob mentality I speak of. He has been accused (key word here...accused). You and a few others here have him convicted already.

I haven't convicted him of anything. I'm not the one that gets to do it.

All I've done is formed my personal opinion. That opinion is that he probably is guilty. I came to that opinion based on his history. I don't have to be right. My opinion has no bearing on what happens.

You guys act like it's some revelation that a person would be judged on his past. You act like his past has no bearing on the chances that he has re-offended. I live in the real world, where if you do stupid things, you sometimes get labeled as a person that does stupid things.

If asll this turns out to be false, and I'm wrong, nothing happens. I was just wrong. I'm not judge or jury. my first impression means nothing in the grand scheme of things. I'm just an innocent bystander that is free to form whatever opinion I want on the subject. I'm also free to change my mind when the evidence presents itself.

As far as I'm concerned, the guy is already a proven druggie. Testing positive only reaffirms something that I don't need reaffirmed.

 

[ajajaj]

And what was that you said about TO being a cancer? He is a great player on the field but a terrible person in the locker room and off the field, I personally don't see the difference. You are allowing your morals to be comprimised by having a different set of rules by which you judge players. Maybe TO just makes bad judgements. I could rip apart your posts all day and vice versus. I think ricky has gotten himself in this mess, and Fans have a right to be disappointed, or even upset with him, and you don't. At this point I will agree to disagree.

That's fine, we can agree to dis-agree, but I'll be damned if I let you end an arguement saying TO is ok while Ricky is not. Ricky has a completely different situation. At what point did Ricky's work ethic or attittude cause HIS TEAM to force him out of the locker room. Which player did he attack on HIS TEAM.

They are two completely different situations and for you to even draw a similarity between the two is ignorant.

T.O. is a money hungry self obsorbed individual that cares only about his takehome pay and "feeding his family". He will sell out anyone at anytime.

Ricky has not been proven to have done anything wrong as of yet, but people like you will make up their minds on bad and incomplete information.

Everyones past plays into who they are today, but who they are today does not always reflect their past. TO's problem was just this past season, while Ricky has made up for his ways by having a near perfect season in EVERY way.

For you to attempt to combine those two arguements just shows your inability to validate your point of view.

 

[LarryFinFan]

It's amazing to me, as I sit here and read all the RW posts on the entire site, that while there are a variety of opinions regarding whether he is guilty on this occasion and whether or not past indiscretions of the drug program should be counted towards a guilty verdict on this one that the real person being victimized here is RW himself.

While he is absolutely the reason he's in this mess, there certainly is enough holier-than-thou judgement being place on him and he'll never be vindicated even if this turns out to be some kind of elaborate hoax (which, for the record, I highly doubt is the case).

Ricky chose to violate the rules of the leagues policy and chose to continue to progress thru the different phases by not changing his lifestyle. After his return to the league, he has appeared to have finally gotten back some of his lost respect, both as a player and a man.

Now this situation comes along and as I sit here, none of US know what that situation really is. However, many of us sit here and judge this situation as 'guilty' because of what we do know about Ricky's past but it's actually what we THINK we know about his past.

At any rate, to those who have hung him in effigy already without knowledge of all the facts, I hope I never end up with any of you as one of my jurors in some future case I [hopefully won't] have and also hope I don't end up in the same jury as you do...

As I said to begin with, no matter what now, RW has pretty much lost any hope of the fan base or the league base ever giving him the rightful benefit of the doubt and he may owe it all to some idiot sportscaster from Denver who wanted to sell his sportscast more than he wanted to report the "truth"...

 

[GRAPEAPE]

That's fine, we can agree to dis-agree, but I'll be damned if I let you end an arguement saying TO is ok while Ricky is not. Ricky has a completely different situation. At what point did Ricky's work ethic or attittude cause HIS TEAM to force him out of the locker room. Which player did he attack on HIS TEAM.

They are two completely different situations and for you to even draw a similarity between the two is ignorant.

T.O. is a money hungry self obsorbed individual that cares only about his takehome pay and "feeding his family". He will sell out anyone at anytime.

Ricky has not been proven to have done anything wrong as of yet, but people like you will make up their minds on bad and incomplete information.

Everyones past plays into who they are today, but who they are today does not always reflect their past. TO's problem was just this past season, while Ricky has made up for his ways by having a near perfect season in EVERY way.

For you to attempt to combine those two arguements just shows your inability to validate your point of view.

It is very difficult to validate a point of view to someone who is not willing to listen and understand what the other person is trying to say. For the record. I do not want TO on this team I also think he is a cancer. I think if Ricky is found guilty of violating any NFL rule he should be out of the dolphins frachise.

 

[endorphin]

Don't we at least know he either failed a test or did not show up for one?

If either of those are true, what else is there to prove? What would lead anyone to believe that these tests were faulty or the league tried to pull a fast one on Ricky all of a sudden?
How can we give Ricky the benefit of the doubt when he has lied numerous times before?
What are the valid excuses this time around?

Yes, I would say we know that he failed a drug test. But that simply means he is being accused of failing a drug test. Due process will tell us if he is guilty or not.

There are many circumstances where the “rule’ says it is a failed test. A simple miscommunication between he and the testing agent could be the cause…hang him for that?

Simply…we don’t know. Thus we must allow for due process to be complete and let those whose job it is to judge him PRIOR to the fans lambasting him prematurely!

 

[NCDolphinfan]

It's amazing to me, as I sit here and read all the RW posts on the entire site, that while there are a variety of opinions regarding whether he is guilty on this occasion and whether or not past indiscretions of the drug program should be counted towards a guilty verdict on this one that the real person being victimized here is RW himself.

While he is absolutely the reason he's in this mess, there certainly is enough holier-than-thou judgement being place on him and he'll never be vindicated even if this turns out to be some kind of elaborate hoax (which, for the record, I highly doubt is the case).

Ricky chose to violate the rules of the leagues policy and chose to continue to progress thru the different phases by not changing his lifestyle. After his return to the league, he has appeared to have finally gotten back some of his lost respect, both as a player and a man.

Now this situation comes along and as I sit here, none of US know what that situation really is. However, many of us sit here and judge this situation as 'guilty' because of what we do know about Ricky's past but it's actually what we THINK we know about his past.

At any rate, to those who have hung him in effigy already without knowledge of all the facts, I hope I never end up with any of you as one of my jurors in some future case I [hopefully won't] have and also hope I don't end up in the same jury as you do...

As I said to begin with, no matter what now, RW has pretty much lost any hope of the fan base or the league base ever giving him the rightful benefit of the doubt and he may owe it all to some idiot sportscaster from Denver who wanted to sell his sportscast more than he wanted to report the "truth"...

Ya seriously I could see it now; have you ever been convicted of a crime sir? Um ya i stole some candy when i was a teenager a couple times. Well sir you are then guilty of murder due to your past history of breaking the law.

I hear ya, sad how this will turn people so against Ricky. Its cool, you know these same people will be cheering for him next year if everything goes well and he is still a dolphin and able to play.

 

[jspchief]

Ya seriously I could see it now; have you ever been convicted of a crime sir? Um ya i stole some candy when i was a teenager a couple times. Well sir you are then guilty of murder due to your past history of breaking the law.

Very realistic analogy.

 

[EBMisfit]

Yea, welcome to the real world, where the stupid things you do in your life sometimes come back to haunt you.

Only because there's always a few self-righteous people out there who will never let a person forget any mistakes they have made, despite how much they may or may not have changed. We're all in the same boat in that we've all made mistakes and not one of us is perfectly innocent. Has RW decided to change his life and turn it around. Well, perhaps, perhaps not. But I'd rather take a chance, especially when there's nothing at risk except maybe some pride, on someone who might have turned his or her life around then just scuttle them to the dustbin on such fragile evidence that might, just might, turn out to be overblown nothing.

 

[GRAPEAPE]

Yes, I would say we know that he failed a drug test. But that simply means he is being accused of failing a drug test. Due process will tell us if he is guilty or not.

There are many circumstances where the “rule’ says it is a failed test. A simple miscommunication between he and the testing agent could be the cause…hang him for that?

Simply…we don’t know. Thus we must allow for due process to be complete and let those whose job it is to judge him PRIOR to the fans lambasting him prematurely!

In the case of the NFL i don't think accused is correct. Players give 2 different sample at the same time. The league test the first one, if it is "tainted" they then test the second sample. a player is only told they failed if both sample came back positive for a banned substance.

 

[NCDolphinfan]

Very realistic analogy.

Thats how you sound!

 

[endorphin]

In the case of the NFL i don't think accused is correct. Players give 2 different sample at the same time. The league test the first one, if it is "tainted" they then test the second sample. a player is only told they failed if both sample came back positive for a banned substance.

Do we know if it was a positive test or missed test?

If he accidentally took the OTC drug Sudafed, or derivative there of, he would test positive because it is a banned substance...should he be suspended for a year?

 

[jspchief]

Only because there's always a few self-righteous people out there who will never let a person forget any mistakes they have made, despite how much they may or may not have changed. We're all in the same boat in that we've all made mistakes and not one of us is perfectly innocent. Has RW decided to change his life and turn it around. Well, perhaps, perhaps not. But I'd rather take a chance, especially when there's nothing at risk except maybe some pride, on someone who might have turned his or her life around then just scuttle them to the dustbin on such fragile evidence that might, just might, turn out to be overblown nothing.

There's more than a few self righteous people. Most of the world is that way. Your employer judges if you will be a good worker based on your past. Banks determine if you'll be a good borrower based on you past. everything you do in your life has the potential to come back and bite you.

It's one thing to forget mistakes and think someone has changed. But we're talking about forgetting about years worth of problems, and assuming Ricky has changed, all based on the fact that he hasn't tested positive for a whopping 8 months. It's not like he's been clean for years after one mistake.

And I'm not taking any chance by making an early judgement on Ricky. My judgement has no residual effects, and I can always chage it. He's just a guy that plays football on TV and it will never matter if I like him or believe in him.