Brennan: NFL struggling through dark days

• For the second time in a week, another young NFL player is dead.When will players realize it's not weak to ask for a ride home?

These are extremely dark days for the National Football League.

For the second time in a week, from one Saturday to the next, another young professional football player is dead at the age of 25 and another NFL team is grieving after allegations of a terrible and tragic crime.

Last weekend, it was Kansas City. This weekend, it's Dallas. The circumstances are different, but the results are eerily similar. Two players are gone: One by his own hand in front of his coach and general manager in the parking lot of the team's practice facility; the second in the morgue after a night out with a teammate, who is now sitting in an Irving, Tex., jail cell while his teammates fly to Cincinnati for Sunday's game.

One week after Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher killed the mother of his nearly 3-month-old daughter and then killed himself, the Cowboys are mourning the loss of a teammate while another has been arrested for intoxication manslaughter.

Nose tackle Josh Brent, who was to have started this Sunday against the Bengals, was arrested early Saturday morning after the car he was driving flipped over, killing his lone passenger, Cowboys practice-squad player Jerry Brown, who was Brent's teammate not only in Dallas but also at the University of Illinois from 2007-09.

The NFL has issued a statement saying it is "deeply saddened" by Brown's loss, extending its condolences to "his family, friends and the Cowboys organization." Last week, the NFL was holding a moment of silence for victims of domestic violence.

The two tragedies are unrelated, obviously, but it's only natural that we should link them, if not because of the calendar, then due to their ultimate common denominator: that they were both caused by NFL players who were supposed to be role models, who were cheered and adored, and who ended up committing what the police say are terrible crimes.

The NFL reminded us last week about how much it counsels its players in mandatory meetings about all kinds of issues, including domestic violence. Rest assured that the list includes alcohol abuse as well.

"Alcohol-related violations of law have long been subject to discipline under our substance abuse program," spokesman Greg Aiello said. "Players are reminded of that every year and responsible drinking is covered in the life skills sessions that every club is required to hold annually for the players."

These are young men with a lot of money, quite a bit of free time and often not much serious guidance from older adults away from the team. The Chiefs knew Belcher was having trouble with his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins. Could more have been done to save her from him? The question probably will remain unanswered.

The NFL has a safe-ride program for its players, but, clearly, Brent didn't use that service early this morning. Why not? That question, too, is probably unanswerable, although we can certainly ask: When will players realize that there's nothing weak about admitting they need a ride home?

The NFL is far and away the most popular league in the history of U.S. professional sports. But it has its troubles. We've all read the headlines this year: the New Orleans Saints and their bounty program, Junior Seau's suicide, the very serious issue of concussions.

Domestic violence and drunk driving are not only the NFL's problems, they are society's problems. But we notice them far more when they are caused by the football players we thought we knew so well.