“Too many stupid mistakes.”
This is how Chicago Bears legend Dan Hampton described his former team’s performance Sunday night in their 45-30 loss to the rival Green Bay Packers. Hampton offered this straightforward postgame assessment on “The Hamp and O’B” show on WGN Radio with former Bears Ed O’Bradovich, Glen Kozlowski and host Mark Carman.
I didn’t tune in after that game to listen to Hampton and O’Bradovich gripe about Bears players, coaches and play-calling decisions. Their show after any Bears loss can be “ugly and predictable,” the same words O’Bradovich used to describe the Bears-Packers game that night.
I tuned in to check if Hampton was still on the radio show after his Nov. 20 arrest in Lake County for allegedly driving while intoxicated. The NFL Hall of Famer was pulled over near his Winfield home and taken to Lake County Jail until he bonded out, according to published reports. The Lake County prosecutor’s office did not respond to my call on Monday about formal charges.
Hampton’s jail booking photo looks nothing like the NFL player we remember from his glory days, nor from his current photos as a radio commentator and TV show personality. His disheveled look and frowning posture reflect his nickname during his playing days from 1979 to 1990 — “Danimal.”
I revered Hampton as a player. I respected him as a commentator. I don’t feel the same about him as a repeat offender for driving under the influence of alcohol, fame and privilege. This latest arrest, just a few miles from my home, would be his fourth DUI offense, following similar infractions in 2002, 1997 and 1996.
Some of his fans told me it’s been nearly 20 years since the last time Hampton drove while intoxicated. Give him a break, they insist. I tell them it’s been nearly 20 years since he was caught. It’s the difference between a handy rationalization and reckless behavior.
Does anyone honestly believe that over the past 20 years Hampton has not driven a vehicle after drinking? Maybe only Bears fanatics. Maybe others, too. Drunken driving is such common behavior that most people tend to look the other way when their loved ones do it. Or when their friends and drinking buddies do it. Or sports heroes like Hampton who lived larger than life during his heyday.
Maybe he’s still living larger than life as he is suspected of again endangering other people’s lives on the road. I can be too apathetic about most issues, from our faiths to our freedoms, but drunken driving is a cardinal sin in my book.
This chosen behavior has been the cause of too many crashes, injuries and deaths. I detest drunken drivers, especially repeat offenders who are continually allowed behind a steering wheel, whether it’s aided by their loved ones, their social clout, or a legal system that’s cracked like a bottle of Jim Beam in an alley.
Too many drinkers get away with it. Just visit any bar on any given night and watch those customers who stumble to their vehicle, turn the key and tell themselves they’ll get home just fine. I once left a bar not too far from Winfield and watched not one, not two, but three guys stumble out of the joint, obviously tanked, and hop into their vehicles without thinking twice. Were they OK to drive? Of course not. Did anyone stop them? Of course not. Did they hesitate to get behind the wheel? Of. Course. Not.
I remember the public service announcement, “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk.” But these barfly mopes weren’t my friends. All I could do was shake my head when they spun out of the parking lot like drunken bats out of hell.
I could spend every night outside bars and restaurants reporting suspected drunken driving. I choose not to. Just like they should choose not to when it comes to getting behind the wheel in their condition. Call an Uber or taxi or friend. It’s a macho thing with many guys. They’ll yell, “I’m fine. Give me the (expletive) keys!” OK sport, whatever you say.
With the holiday season here, there will be no shortage of drunken drivers through New Year’s Eve. Nothing says “Happy Holidays!” like a few cold ones before you head home for the night, right?
The number of people who choose this behavior is much larger than the number of dangerous motorists who get caught by police, or reported by strangers, or who crash their car into a tree and laugh it off the next day. I’m more concerned with all the drunks who don’t get pulled over and who then feel even more justified or outright lucky to get behind the wheel again and again.
This reckless, dangerous decision may describe Hampton, who may not possess the “privilege” of owning a driver’s license if he wasn’t Dan Hampton, with a high-priced defense attorney, friends who look the other way and fans who continue to worship him for playing football more than 30 years ago.
In this postgame review of Hampton’s latest performance, I say he needs professional help and legal consequences, not the same coddling he repeatedly blames Bears coaches for giving today’s pampered players. As a longtime fan and first-time critic of Hampton, I understand that today’s column will not stop him from again drinking and driving, a classic example of our society’s “DUI shuffle.”
Twenty years ago, Hampton was sentenced to a week in jail for drunken driving charges and ordered to attend alcohol education courses. “He reportedly refused to take a Breathalyzer test after failing a sobriety test and pleaded with the trooper not to arrest him,” an Associated Press story states.
His friends — and fans — should now be pleading with him to not drink and drive again. But are they? Will they? I doubt it.
“Too many stupid mistakes.”
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December 14, 2021 at 04:24AM
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Column: Dan Hampton's review of Bears latest performance reflects his latest DUI offense: 'Too many stupid mistakes' - Chicago Tribune
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