On Employing Psychopaths

ipol

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Jul 16, 2005
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The Dirty Mo'
There's a good chance this is better suited to a different forum.

I'm curious, though, at what point is a football team clearly neglectful in its hiring practices? How much of the back story becomes predictive? At what point does a, "second chance" become, "foolish"?

I added the quotations for giggles. For background, I've hired somewhere around twenty men who have done prison stretches. It mostly hasn't worked out well.
 

soxfan121

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I'm tired, so I'm gonna just gonna say Charles Haley, and be on my way.
 

GeorgeCostanza

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This doesn't really answer the questions you pose (edit: after rereading my post maybe it does), but think about the 3 most high profile incidents of the last year. You've got ray rice, Adrian Peterson, and Greg hardy. If you ask me, Rice has easily been the most redeemable and contrite of them. Yet he is the only one currently unemployed. It's all about ability in this league. As long as you can still produce on the field, and the league is allowing you to play (and you aren't incarcerated obviously), it seems there will be at least 1 team willing to take you on regardless of how despicable you and your acts are.
 

GeorgeCostanza

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I added the quotations for giggles. For background, I've hired somewhere around twenty men who have done prison stretches. It mostly hasn't worked out well.
That's really disappointing for me to hear. For reasons I will not get into on this forum, that's an issue near and dear to me. Where has it gone wrong generally speaking? Substance abuse? Attendance? Additional criminal acts after hiring?
 

ipol

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That's really disappointing for me to hear. For reasons I will not get into on this forum, that's an issue near and dear to me. Where has it gone wrong generally speaking? Substance abuse? Attendance? Additional criminal acts after hiring?
Almost always alcohol. Although, crushing and snorting pills is a real thing.

Regardless, we've many examples of teams eager to have people who have already crossed the line into horrendous behavior work for them. I understand that the Patriots disavowed themselves of Hernandez after the fucking murder but I'm hazy as to why they deserve a pass. Was he that fucking charming?
 

soxfan121

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Who's giving who a pass?

I get you're interested in this topic. There's actually been some good articles written about the subject. You know, research where if the notion someone is getting a "pass", it's backed up with like, information and stuff.

Employers are not responsible for bad acts by their employees. NFL teams employ "bad" people at a much, much, much lower rate than they employ "good" people. There is no NFL franchise that is exempt from having employed a "bad dude" at some point.

Lastly, employing psychopaths is actually a good thing for some vocations.
 

lexrageorge

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Jul 31, 2007
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How are the Patriots getting a pass? That has to be one of the dumbest points I've seen raised during the whole l'affaire Hernandez.

If you spend a few minutes with Google, you will quickly find the following:

a.) A big article published by Borges that puts the entire blame on Belichick for Hernandez' behavior.

b.) The fact that the Baltimore Ravens won 2 Super Bowls with a murderer on their roster.

c.) The Carolina Panthers received no penalty for having Rae Carruth on their roster. Nor did the Falcons for having Michael Vick on theirs.

So, please explain for us all how the Patriots are getting a "pass"?
 

P'tucket rhymes with...

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Dec 12, 2006
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There's a good chance this is better suited to a different forum.

I'm curious, though, at what point is a football team clearly neglectful in its hiring practices? How much of the back story becomes predictive? At what point does a, "second chance" become, "foolish"?

I added the quotations for giggles. For background, I've hired somewhere around twenty men who have done prison stretches. It mostly hasn't worked out well.
Which is to say, it has worked out well for some. So, the question becomes, "in which direction do you want to err?" I think Hardy is a grade-A asshole and I wouldn't want him within 100 miles of my home or office, but the Cowboys decided he might be one of those guys for whom it works out (or thought him a bad risk but hey, good player) so they offered him a contract. Should the NFL be a one-strike-and-you're-out business? I dunno.

BTW, you should do a little more background reading on psychopathy. They're out there, and the good ones never go to jail.
 

Devizier

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Jul 3, 2000
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GeorgeCostanza points it out best: talent gets you hired in the NFL. And there is a necessary public relations aspect at play; teams are viewed as "representatives" of their locales. The NFL certainly has no problem capitalizing on this unique form of brand loyalty, so they should certainly be willing to endure the critical aspects of it.

Another point that I would make is that it's problematic to conflate criminal behavior with sociopathic behavior. Greg Hardy certainly seems to fit both profiles but the intersection between the two is far from complete.
 

GeorgeCostanza

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Another point that I would make is that it's problematic to conflate criminal behavior with sociopathic behavior. Greg Hardy certainly seems to fit both profiles but the intersection between the two is far from complete.
True, but the thread is about psychopaths. To your point, Michael Jordan is almost certainly a sociopath.
 

Van Everyman

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Apr 30, 2009
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I will be honest; as reprehensible as Greg Hardy and NFL each are, I'm not entirely sure what more the latter could have done about the former. The League office put him on the commissioners exempt list. They suspended him for a big part of the season. And their penalty got gutted during appeal.

That the Cowboys have employed the guy is shitty and awful and frustrating, but I don't see what can be done to prevent that sort of thing from happening when the player is of elite caliber and the guy wasn't convicted of a crime, unfortunately.

Is there supposed to be an official black ball policy that isn't inconsistent with the CBA? I'd love to chalk it up to incompetence but I honestly don't know. Do other leagues handle this kind of thing better?

Edit: formatting
 

riboflav

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Jan 20, 2006
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Well, in MLB, Myers punched his wife repeatedly in public on a Boston street in the view of several witnesses who called the police to report it. What was the fallout? Myers started the next day in Fenway, went on to win a championship with the same team (Phillies) and played 7 more seasons after the incident. No suspension. No discipline.