I don’t really like Maurkice Pouncey. Growing up as a nerd (I played Pokemon instead of basketball in 6th grade), I’ve always had a healthy mistrust for “jock” types. I don’t mean to apply the stereotype to every professional athlete, because many of them are genuinely good human beings, but there’s some truth to every stereotype; that’s how they start.
So far, Maurkice Pouncey has done exactly nothing in his career to separate himself from the image I hold of the stereotypical asshole jock who thinks he’s above the rules just because he’s kind of big. You may recognize this as a problem that plagues the NFL at large.
Obviously, former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez is now most famous for his sudden involvement in a murder case, but as a former teammate at Florida, Pouncey and his brother Mike quickly took to the public to demand their friend’s release. Both brothers were also connected, along with Hernandez, to an unsolved shooting in 2007. Notably, Maurkice[‘s agent] released an apology on Twitter for the “Free Hernandez” campaign, and that means about as much to me as the emails promising to lower my mortgage (and I rent).
With an already tenuous-at-best acknowledgement of law and authority, Pouncey is now being accused of assaulting a man at a night club in the wee hours of Saturday morning. The details are gruesome, but so far it’s only one side of a story and we don’t have a statement from the Pouncey Bros. yet. (Tip: if either of them releases a statement that has more than one three-syllable word in it, someone else wrote it for them)
No need for me to re-tell the story in that link; you can see for yourself what is being said. But at the end of the day, Pouncey is wrapped up in some kind of trouble. Again.
Am I biased? Absolutely. I said that right at the top of the article. I don’t trust professional athletes, especially football players, until they do something to prove they aren’t like this. Is this character assassination? No, all I’ve done is point out the things that Pouncey has been connected to. And even being accused of something without any charges is enough to tarnish your reputation (just ask Ben Roethlisberger). So far, Pouncey’s reputation fits the mold perfectly of the jock stereotype that I loathe so much.
He’s above criticism because he makes money. He’s above the law because he plays a game. He’s above acting like a rational human in a social setting because he’s spent his whole life being told how great he is. And he’ll get away with whatever he wants to because he’s good at pushing other big dudes around.
I really don’t care if he helps the Steelers win or not. At this point, I hate that he’s on my favorite team.
