Great, insightful posts. Glad to part of an informed discussion.
Here are my thoughts:
1) ATHLETES WILL PARTY. Most of us here went to parties in college / early 20's. Now infuse $1 million dollars, 6 months vacation per year, and unlimited ladies. Almost ALL of us would be partying - perhaps not exactly like these guys. Why does everyone always find it suprising they party hard... I say as long as it doesn't interfere on the field, it's fine.
2) MARIJUANA IS NOT DANGEROUS. Why do does the NFL even test for it? It's certainly not performance enhancing. It's being approved all over the nation, and
they're debating approval in Maryland this week. Obama's admitted to all sorts of
substance abuse in the past.
3) DAVIS / TW WERE BONEHEADS. Still, despite #1 and #2 above, they were idiots. Not so much the fact they did MJ. The thing was they did it REPEATEDLY, knowing they were already caught before, and knowing the consequences. Remember, even
Santana Moss was linked to substances -- which I think was
more serious, because they were performance enhancing (ie. cheating) - but at least he wasn't dumb enough to get caught again.
4) WE'RE A LOSING TEAM. This leads to 12th Man's critical point above -- this would only happen on a losing team. If Clay Matthews was caught & suspended for steroids --> he'd let whole team down & kill the perfect season. There's a lot more pressure on him vs. TW/Davis. Losing begets apathy.
Again, the evil thought keeps creeping up -- the thought no one wants to admit having and that kills the team spirit/soul.... I have to admit my first reaction was "at least we may get a better draft pick..."