In my post above I'm not defending Devante.
He's coming off a football field feeling mean, hurt, and angry over a tough loss, his body and mental state still charged up with adrenaline.
Would any of you jump in front of him, blocking his way, with camera gear?
I sure wouldn't. I'd settle for the angle I could get without impeding him in that moment. It's a discretionary, common sense, and situational awareness thing. It also has something to do with respect and taking personal responsibility for our actions. The camera guy blew it.
Devante overreacted - impulsively, and spontaneously. He's been around long enough to know better, have better control of those impulses even in flashbang popup unexpected situational moments. Devante, unfortunately, also blew it.
Situation escalates. Brouhaha coming. Charges to be filed - precedent set, now others try to trigger football players into reactions that will result in an out-of-court payday. Perpetrator plays victim, feels smug, justified, and rewarded as he folds his money. Wrong outcome.
We've grown (or deteriorated) as a society to expect a legalistic level of perfection when certain situations escalates in public, while at the same time we've all but abandoned the notions of decorum and civility and respect for the rights of others that put some useful restraints on our public behavior.
A guy jumps out of the audience during the Oscars and smacks the presenter. That never would have happened in the John Wayne or Gregory Peck era. Nobody would have thought to do it - it simply wasn't done. Some college-aged kids in the mosh pit at a concert come home with broken arms or worse. Their moms squealed like caged rodents at Beatles concerts, but nobody got hurt.
Woodstock, Altamont, Chicago democratic convention, death riots after South American soccer matches? Ouitlier events, been there throughout human history (no rose colored glasses for viewing the past, here) but these days the outlier behavior is increasing toward the norm.
Football player overreacts toward an obnoxious camera guy who gets in his way, who then gets knocked on his butt. I don't remember anybody jumping in front of the volatile Alex Karas (AKA Mongo in Blazing Saddles) like that; it would have been bad for his health and nobody would have given more than a shrug at the dustup.
Life isn't perfect. Stuff happens. Imperfect stuff. And when it does and we're on the receiving end, quite often, like the camera guy, we've brought it on ourselves.
