Free Ride

Why was Brent Josh Brent standing on the sidelines of last Sunday's Dallas Cowboys game? What sort of sideways justification could there be for inviting an accused felon to take in all the excitement his favorite team has to offer, up close and personal? "His teammates asked him to come and be down there with him, so that's where we are," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. "I do know that certainly there's the other side of the coin, but this is the case of the people that he's arguably the closest to really wanted him around." An interesting point of view, coming from a guy who is a week and a half removed from a rather heated exchange from another one of his players, Jay Ratliff.
Josh Brent was driving drunk and crashed his car, killing his friend and teammate, Jerry Brown. While he was freed on half a million dollars' bond, it still boggles the mind of this football fan why the team or Brent himself would see this as a good move. There was some talk about how, since Brown's mother forgave Brent, that this would all be part of a healing process. She invited him to her son's funeral. That's pretty amazing.
How all this forgiveness figures into having Mister Brent, accused felon, on the sideline the next week continues to perplex me. The National Football League continues to "get tough" on dangerous play, fining and penalizing excessive or unnecessary roughness on the field. Really bad decision making, however, seems to be rewarded with a sideline pass. Maybe that's just they way they do things in Dallas.