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Former Packer Datone Jones â€Ķ.

@IAM_Dat_One
·
Not making an excuse for anyone who decides to get impaired & get behind the wheel it’s reckless to everyone. But players balk at the idea of using those services provided due to invasion of privacy that can effect their job. I have seen guys get cut using team Uber too much.
Last edited by packerboi
@packerboi posted:
Former Packer Datone Jones â€Ķ.

@IAM_Dat_One
·
Not making an excuse for anyone who decides to get impaired & get behind the wheel it’s reckless to everyone. But players balk at the idea of using those services provided due to invasion of privacy that can effect their job. I have seen guys get cut using team Uber too much.

Maybe the well-off NFL player could spring for his own Uber/Lyft. 

In what way is taking an Uber an invasion of privacy?  How could this lead to being cut?  Seriously,  as a part of the unwashed masses, I really have no idea.

I suppose Uber driver could tweet pictures of the guy in his ride or whatever.  But hey, a little loss of privacy is a far better scenario than the one Ruggs finds himself in right now.

I was young and dumb like Ruggs and drove drunk numerous times.  Thank God I  never killed anybody. The worst for me was at age 20 I partied on a Friday Night at UW-Madison and tried to drive back to Green Bay the same night.  I was so impaired, I ended up driving us down to Illinois instead. Very very lucky I didn’t hurt someone that night.

In what way is taking an Uber an invasion of privacy?  How could this lead to being cut?  Seriously,  as a part of the unwashed masses, I really have no idea.

THIS IS IN NO WAY ANY DEFENSE OF HENRY RUGGS WHATSOEVER.

An invasion of privacy could mean something along the lines of "some rando uber driver now knows my home address".  No, that's no different than you and me. But I'm guessing most of us aren't generationally wealthy young men that many thousands of people would like to stalk, blackmail, catfish, etc. It's part of the deal when using that service but there are many cases of Uber drivers harassing women after learning their address, etc. and while 99% of the time it may not lead to anything, I'm not sure if I were a pro athlete I'd want some goof knowing where I live, knowing when I'll definitely not be at home, etc.

As for the leading to being cut, that seems like a stretch to me.  One would like to think that if it's legit being used to avoid just what happened with Ruggs, no one in any team would do anything other than applaud a responsible young man. Although, if you are out partying every night and need an Uber every night, dunno, maybe some hardass GM underling/wannabe would review and be like "Hmm, he's not committed enough to working on his craft" or some such bullshit. Again, I'm guessing that's probably hyperbole, but who knows. Either way, I'm sure that no one has been a perfect player, etc and ONLY cut for using Uber too much.

In every walk of life, people that can absolutely can afford Ubers kill people while drunk driving. People are dumb, people think they are infallible, people think "It won't happen to me".  None of this is exclusive to athletes. I'd like to think if I was an athlete that went drinking often, I'd hire my best bud from High School, or whatever, to be my person driver. But probably easier said than done in actuality. Even in the best of planning, a limo driver could get high, crash and paralyze you (see Vladimir Konstantinov).

Don't drive drunk or high or whatever.

Last edited by Timpranillo

In the NFL, at one point a free (free to the players) car service was provided should a player be out partying and if he had too much they could call up said service and get a ride home no matter the time or the place it occurred. I’ve heard more then one former Packers player mention it in various interviews.

Allegedly, this was a “no questions asked” benefit to players so that tragedies like what Ruggs is involved with would never happen. This was also well before Uber or Lyft existed.

NOW! I AM ABSOLUTELY MAKING NO EXCUSES FOR RUGGS EITHER.

Did the NFL or say the Raiders replace this type of service with an Uber contract? And if yes, and these rides are billed to the team, would teams then track when X player out at say 2am at X club and therefore track how many times this occurred? And to Timpranillo’s point, could that tracking then influence a coach or a GM to start making conclusions about work ethic, why is a player out at say 2am partying, etc?

I make NO excuses for this but we are talking about a billion dollar business. Maybe these teams have snitches at these ride share providers. And perhaps that’s what Jones was eluding toâ€Ķ

@packerboi posted:
Former Packer Datone Jones â€Ķ.

@IAM_Dat_One
·
Not making an excuse for anyone who decides to get impaired & get behind the wheel it’s reckless to everyone. But players balk at the idea of using those services provided due to invasion of privacy that can effect their job. I have seen guys get cut using team Uber too much.

Then hire your own driver and have them sign a NDA. Idiot! Datone knows he was cut for sucking, right?

I agree that a rando Uber driver could be a safety risk and I’m guessing what Datone is saying is that teams will use  team provided drivers to spy on players habits. If you’re not star or well paid player, I’m sure teams scrutinize that type of stuff. The problem is that there are other options. Vegas DEFINITELY has discreet and professional drivers that could have driven Ruggs around all night. That’s true for every city, I’m sure it’s even true for GB. This didn’t have to happen at all.

THERE IS NO MAKING EXCUSES FOR WHAT RUGGS DID! (I just wanted to do that in all caps ) Notice that Deftone says "team Uber," so we can assume either the teams have a service for players or some sort of contract with select Uber drivers. I can see where a guy with a drinking/drug problem who overuses a team service and who isn't an absolute star would get cut; a team would definitely wonder when something like this will happen. But, when you have as much money as these guys do, hire your own driver and lock them in with an NDA.

I'll wager that most of us have driven impaired at one time or another just like fightphoe93 admitted to, and after reading about Ruggs we're thinking, "There but for the grace of __________ go I."

I don't think anyone is touching this kid. It's rare that law enforcement already comes out and charges someone this quickly without toxicology reports even being back and it being a high profile case. Lawyers I saw being interviewed said Ruggs must have been obviously impaired/high to do this so soon.

In Nevada, judges cannot sentence anyone convicted of this to probation. Not an option. It's minimum 2 years. Up to 20.

More then likely, they will make an "example" out of him to send a message to other young people/athletes.

His career is over.   

Calling bullshit on Uber looks bad for a player excuse. I know players in the league. I know people who work in the league. I can assure you they'd rather a kid take 50 Uber's a month because he parties his ass off than have this happen.

Every team has a Ray Donovan guy who is available 24/7/365 to help players in need. No I am not talking about getting rid of dead prostitutes, but you are too drunk to drive...you are in a club and some bad shit is going down, you have an overexuberant fangirl that won't leave your hotel room...you have options. You just don't hear about players who are smart enough to call Ray.

@Boris posted:

That is amazing. Very high first round draft choice.

How long before Tompa or the Cokeboys pick him up? Maybe even the Vikings

He's looking at 2 years minimum prison time.

Given that he was driving over 150MPH (apparently around 125MHP when his air bag deployed) at 2x the legal drinking limit he is going to be spending more than 2 years in prison.

@Chongo posted:

Every team has a Ray Donovan guy who is available 24/7/365 to help players in need. No I am not talking about getting rid of dead prostitutes, but you are too drunk to drive...you are in a club and some bad shit is going down, you have an overexuberant fangirl that won't leave your hotel room...you have options. You just don't hear about players who are smart enough to call Ray.

They wait too long then they need to call Saul.

@PackerHawk posted:

He's looking at 2 years minimum prison time.

Given that he was driving over 150MPH (apparently around 125MHP when his air bag deployed) at 2x the legal drinking limit he is going to be spending more than 2 years in prison.

You have a lot of faith in our justice system. If he does ANY time, it'll be 6 months in a country club and he'll walk. Money works wonders in our "justice system"

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