Ndamukong

I saw the interview before I saw the clip. Within the first few words out of his mouth I had concluded That man is lying. He lies often.

I do this as part of my living, remember. I'm not world-class at detecting people who rationalise their misbehavior, but I'm pretty good. His reasoning seems to be "I can't have done anything bad, because I am not that kind of person." Sociopaths use that reasoning. You hear it in prisons. When he got to the part about "The Man Upstairs" he dropped one level lower in my evaluation. The phrase itself suggests a vagueness about Who exactly he thinks he is talking about, but it is also a tell of a person whose Christianity is entirely inverted, used as a protective device for his precious self. You can't judge me! Only God can judge me! Which means, in effect, no one can ever criticise him.

He will never be wrong, about anything. It will never be his fault. Even if he learns to get his cliches in a row, as a famous athlete should, his accepting blame will max out at saying that "We" have to work harder, and that he will take responsibility for his actions, but then not do so.

I don't listen to many interviews about such things.  Maybe there're a lot of guys like that and he's not very different.  But he's a dangerous man.  It's a pity, because when I started hearing about him last year my thoughts were all positive - a great young defensive player who was making the Lions relevant again, a cool name.