Why Exactly Are The Bears To Blame For Ray McDonald's Legal Trouble?

Chicago Tribune- Ray McDonald is in trouble again. You knew he would be.

Everybody except the Bears, apparently, knew he would be.

The defensive end was arrested again Monday, this time on charges of domestic violence and child endangerment.

A summary released Monday by the Santa Clara (Calif.) Police Department said officers were “dispatched to a disturbance at the residence of Raymond McDonald in Santa Clara. Officers learned Raymond McDonald physically assaulted the victim while she was holding a baby.''

Whatever the courts might say, McDonald is at least guilty of bad decisions. He's at least guilty of putting himself in bad situations.

Same goes for the Bears.

A lot of people at Halas Hall signed off on this guy, from Chairman George McCaskey to general manager Ryan Pace to coach John Fox to defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. They're all wearing this, some to worse degrees than others.

It has little to do with the idea that McDonald was not going to make the difference for a rebuilding team. It has more to do with a franchise that claims to value character.


So of all the parties involved in ray McDonald's second arrest for domestic violence in the last year we are going to blame the Bears? Listen, I understand that the Bears took a risk signing this guy. I realize they didn't exactly due their full due diligence in investigating the incident. I realize that someone that was once guilty of domestic violence is prone to having a secondary episode . That doesn't change the fact that even if the Bears didn't sign him then someone else would have. Look at it from that perspective and it becomes blatantly clear that the Bears franchise falls somewhere on the periphery in terms of guilt. You want to blame someone? How about the NFL? How about our justice system? How about just blaming the asshole that keeps beating women? 

The fact that Ray McDonald was even available to be signed is much more of an indictment on the cut throat nature of the business. It's much more an indictment of the moral ambiguity it takes to run a successful franchise. How can I sit here and blame the Bears when this issue is only coming up AFTER Ray McDonald got arrested again? If this signing was such a travesty for a franchise as prestigious as the Chicago Bears you would think all of these media outlets would take 2 seconds away from talking about the air pressure in a football to discuss it. Are we going to criticize Jerry Jones for the signing of Greg Hardy, and the drafting of Randy Gregory, both of whom have had their own troubles with law enforcement? Or is it more likely that we will wait until one of those transactions inevitably goes sour before we start pointing fingers? What if Ray McDonald miraculously didn't beat his wife and endanger a child? What is Randy Gregory does put down the pipe for a couple years? What if Greg Hardy stops treating his wife like a predator dragging around it's prey? Yes, the odds are against them, but if any of those scenarios play out the Cowboys or the Bears are lauded as geniuses. 

The only difference between Ray Lewis and Leonard Little is that one of those players was able to start making better decisions and now he has his own fucking statue. If Ray McDonald was capable of 10+ sacks a year half the teams in the league would have been beating down his door. It may be the Bears fault that their defense is terrible, but it's not their fault that they exhausted all options to change that. If you don't want players with rap sheets and character issues in the league then don't make them available to the league. Employees of NFL franchises don't exactly have the best job security. If you give them the ability to improve their team they are going to do so, even if it sacrifices the integrity of the locker room. They are in the business of winning, not the business of character assessment.