By: David Steele
Sporting News
There’s a sensible solution to a problem that’s showing no sign of being resolved in American society, much less the NFL.
The n-word has no place in the workplace. Period.
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That includes all the workplaces that make up the NFL. The playing field. The practice field. The facility. The meeting rooms, weight room, cafeteria, hallways, team plane, hotel …
“Whether it’s the uniqueness of the locker room, the uniqueness of the sport—at the end of the day, it’s still a workplace,’’ Troy Vincent pointed out last week.
Vincent, head of the league's player development, played in the NFL 15 years, led the players’ union two more and has been in the NFL’s front office the last four. This is not an abstract discussion for him. Neither is it or John Wooten, who proposed the idea of penalizing the use of the word on the field and has spent the last six decades in the sport.
Wooten’s solution is sensible, too, even if the reaction to it hasn’t been – and even though his ultimate goal isn’t restricted to merely a respectful work environment. Like many from previous generations that knew only one usage and context for the word, he’s tired of hearing it used so casually, and of hearing so many excuses for using it.
“We don’t want that word in the National Football League. If you don’t want to do that, you can go somewhere else,’’ Wooten said last week, adding, “Otherwise, you have the thugs and the racists taking over the league.’’
Vincent is convinced that the choice is that simple. Like Wooten, he knows that the proposal that’s being portrayed as so drastic is merely an enforcement of rules the NFL has employed for years.
The context can’t be overlooked, though. He knows how players talk, what they watch and what they listen to. There’s just no reason not to keep that to themselves away from the workplace. There’s no wiggle room, no exceptions, no loopholes, no debate over who “gets” to say it and who doesn’t.
“Look at this restaurant,’’ Vincent said, waving his arm around the café in the Baltimore Inner Harbor hotel. “Where else can I just look around here and call somebody a derogatory term, whether it’s the N-word, the H-word, the K-word, the B-word, and not be reprimanded in the workplace?’’
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