I am known by my friends as a bit of a "hater" when it comes to football, and while I immediately will become defensive when ascribed such a title, I cannot deny the fact that it certainly appears that way. As it turns out, Facebook isn't always the best avenue for venting frustrations -- especially when literally all of your friends love football, and will take it as a personal attack if you so much as mention one negative word about something they cherish so deeply. But, like your right-wing uncle who blames everything on the Millennials, some people just don't want to hear facts.

I don't shy away from controversy, is what I'm saying, but it bothers me that I can post a million and one things about politics without anyone (other than maybe my right-wing uncle) batting an eye, but if I talk down about football, everyone loses their minds. But, as we can probably all attest to, sports seem to transcend the legitimate causes that impact all of our lives in a meaningful way. Football in particular is like a religion in itself, except people actually attend (or watch, but you get the idea) every Sunday.

Exhibit A:

Here it goes: My name is Jessie. I was born in raised in Denver. I don't care about the Superbowl win by the Broncos, because I don't like football.

This is not a personal attack. The opinions I have about football and/or football players are not a reflection of football fans (though it is interesting that domestic violence rates increase during times of NFL game upsets.) In fact, I am incredibly glad to see how happy the Broncos' win made its fans. Facebook, normally full of posts about politics (which is mostly my doing in my friends' circle...sorry, not sorry), depressing news stories, and people airing grievances about particular goings-on in their lives, was alive with joy and camaraderie. And it is nice to see that. So to the fans out there, congratulations! I really am happy for you!

There are many reasons why I dislike football. A lot of people insist it’s just because I don’t understand how the game works, and that’s certainly not the case. I totally understand what's going on, and it bores me.

I could talk about how it frustrates me that in a three hour televised game, there’s only an average of 11 minutes of actual play. If you're anything like me, you probably enjoy a good visual aide. Here you go:

I could talk about how obnoxious it is that there is significantly more time allotted for advertisements, and how sick I am of being told to drink Bud Light. I could also dive into the fact that people have no problem with paying taxes for a football stadium, but God forbid we pay taxes to get more affordable health care! But instead, I am going to focus on one specific, very unsettling theme among football players.

So many --too many-- of the players, especially in relation to any other major sport, do just ridiculously horrible crap like committing murder, raping and/or assaulting women, abusing animals, driving while intoxicated, and other illicit activities and far too often these actions are overlooked because of the player's fame and wealth. I just don't appreciate the fact that people who make millions of dollars annually, and are seen as role models, not only don't care about what sort of negative messages they put out there, but too often get away with it.

My initial anger

interest was piqued after 9 News, a local Denver news station, posted the story on their Facebook page about Shiloh Keo, a Denver Broncos safety, being arrested in Ada, Idaho for driving under the influence just a few days after the Broncos won the Superbowl.

This particular story has a lot of developing to do, and I have no idea what will come of this case, but what I do know is that it sickens me to my core to see the number of people defending the guy. Comments vary from "Maybe he didn't know he was drunk!" to (my personal favorite) "Who cares about Idaho anyway?!" You know, because Idaho is a stereo-typically hum-drum state, so who cares if some rich football player runs over someone's grandma?

Here are just a few choice comments from the plethora of excuses being made for Keo on the initial 9 News post:

Tactful.

At the end of the day, Keo made the choice to get into his car while inebriated and risk killing himself and others. His good time was more important than other people's well-being, and famous or not, it is absolutely inexcusable. Maybe he will get in big trouble, and I hope he does, but the fact that anyone can try to defend actions like these is deplorable.

But as to whether it looks like anything will come of it, well, let's see. This took place on February 13th, just about two weeks prior to the day I am writing this article. If you google "Shiloh Keo," the primary results have nothing to do with this occurrence. It is actually not until halfway down on the second page of results that you will find anything about this incident.

If you google the same name, but add "DUI" to the end, some news reports will appear, but none are dated after February 14th. And this makes it evident that this is being seen as a non-issue.

Let me be clear. This is not meant to be a singling out of Keo. I don't know the guy. In fact, I had never heard his name before this incident. But his story is just a smaller piece of a bigger puzzle. Why has he not made a statement? Why has his manager said nothing? Because it just doesn't matter.

When I initially posted the news story on my Facebook page, a friend became immediately defensive, stating that football players are no more likely to commit crimes than any other young man, but that is so not the point. I would never suggest that football players are all criminals. In fact, there are plenty of NFL players who are notoriously charitable, philanthropic, caring, and wonderful people all-around. In fact, I am aware that football players, statistically speaking, are less likely to commit many crimes due to the public eye being on them at all times.

The difference is that almost any other 20-something-year-old would face full penalty, be forced to accept all of the consequences, and be stuck with a black mark on his record that could potentially interfere with job prospects and other goals for the future, where a football player is a football player by profession--he's not worried about whether he would qualify for a white-collar job. A football player has a multi-million dollar cushion annually, so what difference does one black mark make?

Keo is just one man, and while I personally think a DUI is an inexcusable offense, it is true that mistakes are made. How often have we all had just a couple of drinks and seemed fine driving home where, had we been pulled over, the outcome of a breathalyzer might have suggested otherwise? But, Keo is just one player. In case you need some more, and by comparison, significantly worse cases of crimes followed by lax or non-existent punishment, continue reading.

Ray Lewis: After a Superbowl party, Lewis' group got into an altercation with another group and the end result was two men having died from stab wounds. Lewis' limo contained blood from the two men, but he denied involvement. After a plea agreement that required Lewis to throw his two friends under the bus regarding the crime, Lewis' murder charge was dropped, and he received a measly 12 months of probation.

Donte Stallworth: In March of 2009, Stallworth drove with a blood alcohol level that was 50% over the legal limit, hit and killed a man with his car. Stallworth paid off the victim's family for an undisclosed amount, and spent only 24 days in jail for a crime that normally warrants a 15 year sentence.

Lawrence Taylor: In 2010, Taylor was charged with the rape of a 16-year-old girl. He pleaded guilty, and despite this, the jury decided it was not forcible rape, and Taylor received no jail time whatsoever.

Adam Jones: Jones has a long list of crimes including drug possession, assault, coercion, resisting arrest, and others, but one of the more known incidents took place at a strip club in Vegas. Angered by a stripper picking up the money that was thrown on stage for her (how dare she?!), Jones punched her in the face and slammed her head into the ground. Just to make sure the message really hit home, upon leaving the club, one of Jones' crew fired his gun back into the establishment and hit three people. Jones received no jail time.

Adrian Peterson: Peterson mercilessly beat his child with a switch, causing cuts and bruises all over the boy's body. Charged with felony child abuse, he pleaded no contest. He received no jail time, and was back to playing with the NFL within just a few months.

Ben Roethlisberger: A woman at a nightclub Roethlisberger patronized reported to an off-duty policeman ( whom Roethlisberger was hanging out with on the night in question) that Roethlisberger followed her into the ladies' restroom and forced himself on her. The officer immediately defended Roethlisberger, belittled her concerns, and claimed later that he had no memory of meeting the woman. The woman ultimately dropped the charges due to the level of media involvement, presumably to protect her identity and well-being, but maintained that her choice to drop the charges in no way meant that she was recanting her accusation.

Finally, we have Michael Vick: In 2007 VIck was implicated in an illegal dog fighting ring, within which Vick promoted, funded, and facilitated dog fighting on his property. As if that weren't bad enough, Vick also hanged dogs by chains or drowned them if they did not perform well in the fights. Vick did serve 21 months in prison -- more than any of the above players combined--but very quickly after being released, Vick was signed on with the Eagles for the 2009 season.

These are just a few names that come up if you are looking into popular players making the news for something remarkably stupid. There are hundreds of others, but this post has been long-winded enough, and I'm sure you get the idea.

As I am writing this article, a debate (more of a friendly back-and-forth) with another friend has transpired, in which she believes that football players maybe do engage in a lot of criminal activities for which their financial situation, their high-power representation, and the bias of the justice system afford them some level of protection that the general public does not receive, but she claims that football players aren't so special when you consider how many multi-millionaires and billionaires of other positions, like CEOs, also receive special protection and representation when they commit crimes. She is not wrong, but that is an article for another day.

At the end of the day, it comes down to this. I will not tell anyone that they are bad people for enjoying football. We all have something that resonates with us--something we truly care about. Things outside of ourselves can become part of us. Hell, I am still not over Breaking Bad's season finale. But we should really put more care into choosing who our role models, or who our children's role models might be. We should not accept that an elite group of people can receive special treatment that the rest of us cannot--especially when those people's paychecks, by-proxy, are funded in part by us.

And now, football season is over, so let's all watch some hockey! Ah, hockey. Where you can witness all the violence you want, but it takes place in the rink, so it's legal.