ESPN’s investigative reports have again unearthed more “startling” news from around the NFL for their “Outside the Lines” program. This time our Pittsburgh Steelers are at the heart of it.
If you haven’t seen it, the link is embedded here. It’s a piece about a man named Jack Kearney who is a high-ranking Allegany County Sheriff’s Officer who is also known as the Steelers’ “Cleaner.”
What Kearney’s job duties are for the Steelers are quite simple; when players get into trouble, he makes sure he is there to keep things as calm and quiet as possible. Sound shocking?
It shouldn’t be because all 32 teams employ men just like this.
Ever see the USA Network television program called “Unnecessary Roughness?” One of the main characters is a guy named “Nico” whose job is to make sure the fictional NFL team’s players are on the up and up.
The writers of this show didn’t just come up with this out of thin air. It was based on fact and these “cleaners” actually go deeper than just the NFL. Most top college football programs have them as well.
The reason OTL did the story was because of the scrutiny that surrounds Kearney. Many within the city of Pittsburgh and in the county believe his double-dipping is wrong. He earns a salary from the county but also one from the Steelers as well.
After reading the extremely long article a couple of times, I couldn’t help but wonder what the point was? Was it to address the problems men like Kearney can erase or can create? Was it to call out the Steelers only? That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
As with SpyGate, BountyGate and now “Deflate-Gate,” the NFL is finding out that being the top dog in American professional spots means you’re going under the microscope more often than the other sports.
That doesn’t however mean there is actually anything really worth reading.
photo courtesy espn.go.com
4 comments
Leave it to ESPN to stir the pot and create more controversy right before the super bowl. I don’t care about the Pats or Seahawks at all, but damn we’re still talking about #DeflateGate and now people will be talking about this.
Actually there were several points to the article. Are our tax dollars and the resources they provide paying for security for the Steeler security. Why was a county sheriff investigating a city case? Why did the city police call the eraser? Will these action cost the tax payers for these mishandles? Where there smoke there’s fire. And Pittsburgh most definitely is a who you know town no one would ever dispute that.
I agree that there could be a better way to do things between the local authorities and the team, but I think in the grand scheme of things, all 32 teams do something similar. Even if the other 31 teams don’t have a “cleaner” that is a direct employee of the local PD,you can be assured that they all have guys in the PD on line one.
The more i think about it the clearer it becomes that this is truly what the police and sheriff’s office should not be doing. Working security at games, fine. But having the Steelers security chief working investigations involving players that involve the citizens they were sworn to protect is a conflict of interest if there ever were. And there already has been a lost of tax payers money by prosecuting people under false pretenses. The police and sheriffs who are hired with taxpayers money job is to protect and serve the people not the Pittsburgh Steelers.