Molly McPherson argues that real accountability means acknowledging the pain you caused others, not just admitting you messed up. She cites NFL coach Mike Vrabel talking about disappointing his wife, and contrasts that with how sports scandals get treated as theater instead of genuine harm.
Accountability isn't just admitting a fault or getting close to it. Like Mike Vrabel, eh, oh, where are my quotes? Ugh, I have them up here. But Mike Vrabel saying, uh, you know, I've talked to my wife. I've, you know, I've disappointed my wife. I've disappointed da da da da. This is personal. All you're doing is acknowledging that something was there. True accountability is acknowledging the pain that was experienced by someone else. That's what accountability is. Mike Vrabel, one of my quotes was, this is not a pearl-clutching scandal, cheating scandal. That's not what this crisis is. No one is holding Mike Vrabel to a standard that an NFL coach can't cheat. I don't know, maybe it's just, maybe I'm only me, but you hear about an NFL player or a coach cheating, like, Okay, we're not going to be shocked by it. Would we just— are we disappointed by it? Sure, we could be disappointed by it, but shocked? Not necessarily.
