Yes folks, old habits die hard. And NFL players with big contracts, huge expectations, and millions of people watching are no exception. On Tuesday night, only hours after he was reinstated as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals, Chris Henry was back in the news. As you may remember, back in December of ‘05 the wide-out was pulled over for speeding, was found to have marijuana in his shoes, and oh yea, was driving without a valid driver’s license or insurance. A month and a half later, he was arrested on gun charges including concealment and aggravated assault. All of this prompted NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to suspend Henry for the first 8 games of this season. This brings us to Tuesday when he was involved in an altercation in the entertainment district of Newport, Kentucky. Henry reportedly parked their SUV without paying the fee required for the parking lot. When the attendant asked him to pay the fee, Henry yelled at the attendant “Don’t You Know Who I Am?!” and shortly afterward threw a 5 dollar bill on the ground and told the attendant to pick it up.
The response that I assume was provided by the attendant went something like “yea, I know who you are, aren’t you that guy who got into a lot of trouble off the football field and was suspended for half a season for being a dumbass?” Look, I hate paying for parking as much as the next person, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Also, shouldn’t a professional athlete such as Chris Henry be able to pay a $5 parking fee without thinking twice? I’m going to register a guess here that the SUV that was being parked had tricked out rims, maybe an Xbox 360 and a couple of screens, and some tinted windows. Are you telling me that paying for parking is such a financial burden on you that you should be able to pull the don’t-you-know-who-I-am card? Oh and by the way, note to Chris Henry, if you have to pull that card, it will get you nowhere. Either the attendant doesn’t know who you are, which means that you are not big enough to get free parking wherever you go, or he knows who you are but doesn’t care and isn’t going to let you off of the parking fee anyway.
And you want to talk about old habits dying hard, I guess the whole “not showing respect for anyone” habit hasn’t died for Henry. When you become a player in a major sporting league, you become a representative for that league. People associate things that you do with the reputation of that league, and that sport as a whole. Throwing a $5 bill on the ground and telling someone to pick it up shows a gross lack of respect. Henry was just trying to make the attendant feel like dirt, which is apparently what he thinks of his teammates and coaches, the NFL at large, and all of the fans who watch the NFL. The man has no dignity, he has no respect. And you want to talk about showing no respect to the man who suspended you, how about his response when he was asked about what he learned from the suspension… “I’ve been sitting back and going through this little stuff, my little suspension or whatever, and I’ve had a lot of time to sit down and think about everything.” Excuse me, you’re “little suspension or whatever?” You got suspended for half a season! This was not a “little suspension.” This was a big motherf***ing deal and you seemed to take it as nothing but a slap on the wrist.
Here’s my suggestion to Commissioner Goodell. The entire reason that you suspended this guy in the first place was that by breaking the law, multiple times, he showed no respect for his team, your league, or the game of football. The suspension was there to show him that he needs to gain a little thing that many people have (and unfortunately many others lack) called “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” (props to Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin). By attempting to pull the don’t-you-know-who-I-am card and throwing a $5 bill at the feet of an attendant and expecting him to pick it up, aaaaand by calling his half a season suspension just “a little suspension or whatever,” Chris Henry has shown that he is not worthy of being a somebody, an anybody, and much less, a player in the NFL.
Warren
Tags: Chris Henry, football, NFL, suspension
