The problem with bad behavior and misdeeds on the field is their longer lasting impact.
Kids see players abusing and bashing each other and think maybe they’ll give it a try in their next game.
Call it “monkey see, monkey do.” We learn by watching what others do.
Football players are – or should be – role models for our young. What they do or how they misbehave makes an impression on impressionable youngsters.
Bad hat trick
What I’m talking about – if you missed all the hullabaloo – is what happened in the last seconds of the last week’s Cleveland Browns-Pittsburgh Steelers game.
Browns defensive end Myles Garrett did something no player should ever do.
He yanked off Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph’s helmet and swung like a truncheon, hitting Rudolph in the head.
Fortunately, the Pittsburgh quarterback suffered no concussion but easily could have. Football helmets are built of sturdy stuff – to protect the heads inside.
Used to target or club other players, they can become deadly weapons.
The attacker should have known better. He was the first pick of the 2017 National Football League draft. He’s played sports all his life. He should know how to control his emotions.
Garrett has been suspended without pay for the rest of the season and may receive further discipline. 
Criminal charges?
The nature of the assault has led to calls that he be criminally charged. 
In an unscientific Cleveland.com poll, 67% favored charging him with assault even though many probably were Browns fans.
Rudolph could file a civil lawsuit, writes Philadelphia lawyer and law school instructor Randy Maniloff in The Wall Street Journal.
In 1973 the Denver Broncos’ Dale Hackbart suffered a career-ending neck fracture. Charles “Boobie” Clark of the Cincinnati Bengals came from behind and hit him in the back of the head and neck with his forearm.
Hackbart sued Clark but the judge ruled against him because he knew the violent nature of the game.
A reversal
In 1979, the US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled there were no principles of law to allow a judge to deny a victim damages due to the roughness of the game.
Hackbart settled for an undisclosed sum.
In Green v. Pro Football Inc., a US judge allowed Barrett Green of the New York Giants to sue Robert Royal of the Washington Redskins. Royal ended Green’s career by lowering his helmet and driving full speed into Green’s knees.
Sending Garrett to jail may be more than any judge wants to do. But his playing days should be over.

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