Truth be known, the "Hernandez thing" has magnified every and any negative vibe coming out of
...everyone, that is, except Alfonzo Dennard.
But let's get something straight. The Patriots have had two players arrested since the Super Bowl, putting their stamp on an offseason of 50 indiscretions that have landed NFL players in the clink - That's 4% for all you stat perverts. But having a star player intimately involved in a sensationalized murder investigation and facing multiple felony counts as Hernandez is makes that number seem like 40% - maybe more.
So when Dennard was pulled over in Lincoln, Nebraska early one morning last week for supposedly straddling a lane line and subsequently arrested on suspicion of Driving Under the Influence of alcohol, the weight of negative public opinion threatened to crush him - his career and his freedom became as tenuous and potentially short-lived as a bad rendition of "Hamlet"...
...and perhaps this is what it will take for Dennard to realize the gravity of his status in the world, and that not everyone loves him - least of all the Lincoln police department, who saw him essentially slapped on the wrist after serving one of their own a knuckle sandwich last year, and had to be chomping at the bit to see justice served.
That being said, something is rotten in the State of Nebraska, and were he alive to tell the tale, William Shakespeare would be all over it...
The New England Patriots have decided not to release cornerback Alfonzo Dennard, who was arrested by Lincoln, Nebraska police officers under suspicion of DUI last week - the same officers who would have loved to see him serve the maximum five year sentence for striking a police officer last April, yet saw him walk out of the county courthouse and right into the Patriots' defensive huddle.
It's a brand of justice that no one wants to be subjected to, but Dennard walked right into it, leaving a nightclub in downtown Lincoln, getting behind the wheel of a car - knowing that the cops had it out for him - and managing to straddle a lane line.
Whether he was intoxicated or not is a matter of much conjecture, as are the phantom breathalyzer tests and Dennard's refusal to submit to a blood test, and the Patriots' decision has to make one wonder if Dennard is guilty of anything but poor judgment.
And because the New England Patriots are not stupid, they have decided not to release their 2012 7th round draft pick, even though public opinion suggested that they should - because just as in Shakespear's Hamlet, Belichick and team owner Bob Kraft recognize the signs of dark malfeasance, and that the political hierarchy in Nebraska is "a thing rank and gross in nature."
It didn't take the ghost of a dead kings crawling around the dark hallways of Gillette Stadium , delivering foreboding messages and giving everybody the willies. These gentlemen have lived long enough to know a rotting fish when they smell it, and they are not men given to knee-jerk reaction, particularly when dealing with such a commodity as a competent cornerback in a pass-happy league.
But they are the type of men who believe in due diligence, and it is certain that Kraft's crackerjack legal team have assured him that the odds are better than even in their favor that Dennard's legal counsel will be able to deflect the charges and keep his client out of jail - and even if he can't beat whatever the police say they have on him, the severity of the imposed sanctions will ultimately decide if Dennard stays or goes.
Not to mention the fact that if a corner with the talent and potential of Dennard is released, about 31 other teams will be tripping over each other to put their claim in on the waiver wire, and the Patriots would have dumped a gem that fell right into their laps on draft day.
So the Patriots' decision tells all of us everything that we need to know, that they are not willing to give up on a good athlete and a good kid - albeit ne'er too bright, apparently - just because he put himself and his career and his freedom at the mercy of a mob of disgruntled cops with a score to settle...
...because that's what it looks like to those who know better, and if the judge in the Lincoln courtroom can't see through the smoke and mirrors that her own public servants are trying to dazzle her with, then there is indeed something rotten in the State of Nebraska.
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