WaterfallJumper
Veteran Starter w/Big Long Term Deal
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2009
- Messages
- 8,438
- Reaction score
- 18,072
On Simmons, you have to trust the team to do its due diligence on his character. Yes, he was young; yes people deserve second chances. But realistically, this is a tough time for the Patriots to draft any player with an indelible video like that out there.
While there's no denying that the video looks ugly, the fact that he was going to a relative's defense makes it easier for me to forgive. I know it probably won't be the case for everyone, but to me there's a difference between a teenager going overboard defending someone vs attacking a woman unprovoked. Before and after the assault, everyone has defended his character -- he has quite the reputation at Miss State for his community and charity work, and his coaches rave about his work ethic and accountability. He also owned up to his actions and talked about how much he learned from the incident. It seems like it's pretty clearly a one-off situation.
But I'm a real sucker for a good redemption story, so . . .