From the Sidelines
After reading Malcolm Gay’s article “Sidelined” (November 2008), I felt compelled to express a few concerns. While I will say it was beautifully written and a departure from what I have read in St. Louis Magazine, I found a few flaws in your argument that the NFL and its Security Department may have had something to do with Abdulqaadir being kept from playing in the NFL.
I spent more than four years working in the NBA Security Department under a boss who was an ex-Special Agent in Charge of the FBI, the equivalent to Milt Ahlerich. The NBA, like the NFL, has ex-FBI, ex–Secret Service and ex–police officers working for it on the team level. That should come as no surprise to anyone, but they are there merely to provide guidance and be the eyes and ears for the league. Since they are mostly ex–law enforcement, they do retain their old contacts, but they do not have any authority other than to help guide the leagues in their investigations. As your article stated, most of the investigations involve guns or stalkers or drugs, and nine times out of 10, it is not about terrorism.
Milt Ahlerich and the NFL Security Department have an almost impossible job to do. Securing the facility and the safety of 30,000 people every Monday night for 16 weeks is as hard as it gets. Without those eyes and ears on the team level, the games would not go on. The people who work hard at those capacities are never the ones who get the glory, but they are the ones working behind the scenes to ensure that a bomb threat is investigated to its fullest capacity or that the HVAC system in Oakland is secure, things I never thought about before when I went to a sporting event but that post-9/11, I am always aware of. The leagues ensure that these things happen utilizing the contacts that they have across the country and to the best of my knowledge never use these contacts in any other capacity. One thing that you failed to mention in your article was that the NFL teams are independently owned and operated, and to say that the NFL or Milt Ahlerich has more authority over the Board of Governors is just not correct. They are not calculated because, honestly, they are just not that sophisticated.
Someone once told me that statistically, it was more likely someone would be struck by lightning than that they would make it onto a pro sports team. While it would be nice to be able to point fingers, isn’t it more statistically possible that instead of the NFL conspiring against Mr. Abdulqaadir, maybe he just was not good enough to make it in the first place?
Jen Rich
St. Louis
Across the River
Bravo to Jeannette Cooperman for capturing a tiny piece of rural America, the Monroe County (Ill.) Fair, in her article “All’s Fair” in the November 2008 issue. Even though one would pick up your magazine suspecting to find article after article about the city of St. Louis, Jeannette and her editors have recognized the fact St. Louis is influenced by the towns and villages that surround it. The rural, so-called “bedroom communities” feed a good deal of the workforce into the St. Louis economy and are symbiotically influenced by St. Louis city life.
Susan L. Harbaugh
Red Bud, Ill.
Price Points
I love food and was very interested to see your article regarding the top 35 restaurants in the area (“The 35 Best Restaurants in St. Louis,” October 2008). The use of price tiers was a welcome sight to a single woman who has a mortgage but enjoys good food. Thank you.
Elizabeth Matoushek
St. Louis
