There is nowhere in the land of 04074 that the current NFL football player/off-field behavior controversies would make a good tea-and-crumpets presentation topic.

Player Ray Rice has been shown in a video beating up his then-girlfriend in an elevator, coldcocking her, then dragging her out by her feet, the way you drag a carpet into your child’s dorm room last week of August. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell of Scarborough has performed like a contestant on American Idol in handling discipline here.

*This will not be a good topic for a fire and brimstone speech by any local lawyers at Scarborough High in Mr. Truncellito’s AP Government class about the presumption of innocence etc.

*Paul Aranson will not be selecting this as a topic for some Rotary Club or Kiwanis presentation to boost his Maine House of Representatives campaign “The Development of Feminism in a Modern Society,” etc.

*Commissioner Goodell has a house now down at Prouts Neck with his family. But I doubt Rodney Laughton or others will be inviting Roger to speak to the Scarborough Historical Society to update our understanding of The History of Sports in the Black Point area near Stratton and Bluff islands.

Let’s take a look at each of these ideological pin?atas one by one.

Presumption of innocence etc. etc.

A friend of mine calls this “the Duck Dynasty issue.”

You may recall the popular cable TV show that, several months ago, experienced a kerfuffle when one or more of the cast members criticized homosexuals. The show’s producers took disciplinary action against the actor. Public outcry!

What about his First Amendment rights? Can’t he be on the show each week AND speak out on public issues?

No.

Think of a TV show – or nowadays, an NFL team – as a lemonade stand in your front yard.

Part of the reason cars stop to buy your lemonade is because the kids are cute. If Johnny is discovered suddenly to beating up classmates on the Pleasant School playground, sales may plummet. Bobby would have to tell Johnny the two could no longer be business partners.

Being on a TV show is the same thing.

Being in the NFL – a billion-dollar operation nowadays – ditto.

In Hollywood, actors sign contracts. The contracts have “morality clauses.” Basically, the paragraphs of fine print say, “We need you to be well behaved, and help us create an environment in which the show will be popular with the pubic, with the viewers, and with the advertisers. If you do things we find objectionable, we have sole discretion to terminate you.”

That is the reality.

Duck Dynasty actors learned they were no longer in a high school Civics class.

The NFL players are learning the same thing. Get accused of something. Especially if there is video evidence, or detailed statements, by witnesses or police?

Your value as a “commercial asset” to the league is greatly diminished.

Cheez Doodle companies won’t buy $50 million in ads. The public won’t purchase $200 million in T-shirts and replica jerseys. You are gone.

This is quite a society we have here.

Firefighters, teachers, traffic cops earn glorified minimum wage.

Entertainers have $40 million contracts.

But the former get invited to speak to our local 04074 groups.

The latter get booted, and are suddenly unemployed.

Easy come. Easy go.

Dan Warren is a lawyer in Scarborough who can be reached thru private Facebook message at the Jones & Warren Attorneys at Law page, or by email at jonesandwarren@gmail.com.