Does fan loyalty ever enter into a mind of an NFL player? Do these players ever realize that their paycheck is being paid for by the fans who come and fill the stadiums in which they play? Do they realize that fans purchase merchandise, such as jerseys with their number on it and pay an outrageous amount of money for those jerseys? Does it even really matter to some of the players in the NFL? And if it doesn’t matter to the players, then why should the fans reciprocate and support those players?

At 5:15 am Tuesday morning, New York Jets WR Braylon Edwards was arrested for DWI after blowing a 0.16 BAC when he was pulled over because his Range Rover had window tinting which was too dark at the corner of 34th St and 12th Ave. Edwards is now going to be facing a 4 game suspension from the league and puts the Jets in a hole.

Yesterday, the NFL announced that Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Tanard Jackson had failed another drug test, and after serving a 4 game suspension last year, will be suspended for at least another full year before he can play again. Jackson is a key element in the Buccaneer defensive backfield.

These two players are just the latest two players to serve a league “time out” after their selfish behavior. Do players ever take into account the fans? High profile players make millions of dollars and in the case of Bryalon Edwards, he was seen double fisting drinks at a “Charity event”, no doubt giving back to the community. Now he’ll be giving back in community service.

I’m not picking on any individual team or players, but in addition to the two listed above, we could add in Adam Jones, Michael Vick, Ben Roethlisberger, Plaxico Burress, and Ricky Williams just to get started. At some point and time, yes these players are being punished, but many of these players were given a second chance and they committed yet another violation of one sort or another.

Most all of these  players who are playing in the NFL have been given special treatment their entire life, since they began playing Pop Warner football. They ran faster than other players, and that manifested into getting into a local high school powerhouse program. When they excelled there, it was a scholarship to a bigtime NCAA program, and then they cracked into the NFL and got their first major payday with their first contract.

Every single issue in their life that might derail their career has been taken care of by someone else since the time they were 8 years old. Now the player has millions of dollars in front of him, friends and family tugging at him, along with the tease of going out and making a name for himself on the party scene. Selfishness comes with the new found wealth. The self-promotion and now with Youtube and Twitter, the situation is only going to get worse.

So do the fans figure into the equations at all? Do you think Tanard Jackson or Braylon Edwards worry if anyone is buying their jerseys? Edwards was outspoken this offseason about how the fans in Cleveland didn’t support him, perhaps they had a very good reason. Tanard Jackson served a 4 game suspension last season for a drug violation and now will miss at least a year, the Buccaneers face every home game to be blacked out this season.

I refuse to buy players jerseys any more because you can’t get attached to a player who jumps ship to another team at the first chance. And I look at the fact that Denver Broncos rookie QB Tim Tebow has outsold every jersey this offseason without taking a snap. He’s been ridiculed about his espousing of his faith, but maybe people are wanting to find a player they can support who says what he means and means what he says. That’s not all bad in my estimation.

Tanard Jackson had a second chance (actually a third chance because the first positive drug test is in-house). Bryalon Edwards could have called the New York Jets car service and could have been driven home with no questions asked. Instead, they both acted selfishly and put their teams and the team’s fans in a bad position for the rest of the season.

So before you go out and drop 200.00 for an authentic NFL team jersey for your favorite team’s player, is he really worth it? Or will be just end up on the police blotter on Monday morning like so many other players? If the players aren’t thinking about their actions and how it affects you, then you shouldn’t be thinking about them.