Yesterday, CNN’s InSession began broadcasting a trial involving attempted murder of NFL player Richard Collier (Florida v Hartsfield). Despite CNN’s promise that “a jury will decide,” the trial took place in November and the jury has already decided.

But the verb tense isn’t what disturbs me about this case: it’s what the sordid tale says about sports in America these days. How many times do we have to hear about sports elites’ involvement in violence?

I’m not blaming Mr. Collier, the victim. I’m simply pointing out that every year more than one NFL player is involved in violence. They shoot themselves in the foot at a dangerous bar. They get shot on the back of a pickup truck. They get shot by their suicidal girlfriends. They torture dogs and go to federal prison. The list goes on.

Yes, even golfers and basketball players get in trouble, but right now I’m perplexed by the special laws of football.

Exempt from Anti-Trust Laws

Until yesterday I did not know that Major League Baseball is exempt from anti-trust laws, despite the fact that it is very major-league big business. In addition, it seems that the NFL has some exemptions from anti-trust laws and (according to Bloomberg) is now taking it a step further, all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court putatively over the sale of some embroidered baseball caps with football-team logos on them.

The NFL player’s union suspects that hats aren’t all that’s at stake: if the Supremes side with the NFL over the trademark issue, the NFL team owners may be able to “bust” the unions next season if they go on strike.

NFL Players Association

The NFLPA is a union. It must be one of the most effective unions of all time, given the incredible contracts NFL players, like Michael Vick, receive. If you’re in the union, you get paid a fortune no matter that you’re a convicted felon and a third-string player.

If the union is correct about the real purpose of the NFL’s trust-law complaint, then what the NFL owners intend to do is lock out the players next season, rather than permitting them to strike over plans to contain escalating contracts for rookie players. It’s a puzzle as to why the union is willing to strike over this issue, but that aside the NFL is on the verge of being the first Supreme-Court sanctioned mega-trust. (Actually, I think it’s probably the sports agents who have hoodwinked the union into wanting to strike.)

Who Is the NFL?

The NFL is a corporation owned by the owners of the 32 team franchises. Thirty-one of these are individuals, very wealthy individuals. Only one is itself a corporation, The Green Bay Packers, Inc. As a Chicago Bears fan (disappointed annually) the only good thing about the Packers, as far as I’m concerned, is that it’s democratic; anyone in Green Bay, WI, can buy stock in the team.

You See Where I’m Headed

There’s a reason why so many NFL players are criminals: as a society we have exempted their industry from every standard of decency and law. We celebrate not their skill but their income. If you live in Chicago you pay the Bears’ owners a fortune for the privilege of freezing your derriere off and watching sloppy play and asinine coaching--because you have no choice. The Bears owners have a monopoly on football in the nation’s “Second City.”

Florida v Hartsfield

I wish CNN had chosen a different trial for the first of the year. All it reminds me of—besides the failed Bears—is that certain industries in this country not only have managed to circumvent all the laws that govern the rest of us, but also that we no longer have any sports heroes.

The reason? Radix malorum est cupiditas.

• Sidebar: I have to add that recently I heard a sports commentator claim that the only way an African American teenager can hope to “get ahead” is by playing sports. I guess he doesn’t know who the President of the United States is. But that isn’t surprising, either, since our society no longer values education, and the commentator is a product of our failed schools.