Commentary /By Larry Felser
Plan of Lynch’s handlers lacks common sense
Updated: 06/15/08 6:41 AM
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- The longer the Marshawn Lynch hit-and-run saga lasts, the more it will affect him on the field.
By now we are long accustomed to professional athletes acting as royalty, being compensated with obscene amounts of money, treating ordinary citizens as serfs and sometimes acting as though laws, in the words of the late Leona Helmsley, “the Queen of Mean,” are for the “little people.”
But Marshawn Lynch’s after-midnight hit-and-run adventure, the puddle allowed to expand into a lake, begs another question: Where do these royal jocks find their lawyers? Straight from the cast of “Law and Order?”
If you have seen the popular television series or any of its gazillion reruns, you know what I mean.
In an early scene Detective Lenny Briscoe and his partner of the moment are questioning the perp, suggesting that life will be much smoother for him if he explains what happened. Just then in bursts the perp’s lawyer, announcing, “This interview is over!” or, “Don’t say another word! Don’t answer another question!”
A scene or two later takes place in a courtroom at the perp’s arraignment. His mouthpiece is arguing to the judge, “My client is an upstanding member of this community. There is no chance of his fleeing. We ask for a nominal bail.”
The judge, a crusty grandmother type, has heard it all before so she answers, “Nice try counselor, but your client’s cooperation has been nil. The defendant is remanded.” The sound of her gavel is heard whacking her desk as a bailiff leads the defendant to a cell.
Lynch’s lawyer is Michael Caffery, who claimed last Wednesday that, “As far as I’m concerned, we’ve cooperated.” The cooperation of Caffery and his client rank with the aid the hit-and-run victim received from the occupants of Lynch’s Porsche after she allegedly was knocked to the street by that luxury auto.
Isn’t there a Law School of Common Sense somewhere that emphasizes the old verities — “The truth shall make ye free” . . . “Sunshine is the best disinfectant” . . . “Honesty is the best policy” — that can be passed on to clients?
Clients who are big-time professional athletes do fall into a special category. Their line of work is performed in a fishbowl. Their gilt-edged income depends upon the popularity of their sport and that of themselves. What they do off the field, rink, diamond, court or wherever is of immense interest to the people who pay the freight for their lifestyles. This truth sometimes escapes athletes such as Pacman Jones, Cedric Benson, Roger Clemens and Rafael Palmeiro.
District Attorney Frank Clark suggests that Lynch, because he doesn’t have a rap sheet, is unlikely to do jail time no matter what his role in the hit-run caper. Which brings up another question: If he has a relatively clean record, why mess with it?
The more Lynch embarrasses the Bills and the NFL, the more likely Commissioner Roger Goodell would consider some sort of punishment, maybe a suspension. Since any sort of conviction could result in the player being banned from entrance into Canada, thereby missing the December game against Miami in Toronto as well as any future games, not only would his income be affected but his value to the Bills diminished.
The puddle of trouble could have been cleaned up long ago with a liberal dose of common sense.
Larry Felser, former News columnist, appears in Sunday’s editions.
