Clinics address character

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson led the NFL in rushing the last two seasons, so why is Peterson in seemingly every commercial while Johnson is rarely seen?

“It’s all about image and perception,” Jerry Horowitz, the NFL’s director of youth tackle football, told a group of high school players after making the point about the two running backs at a league-run clinic in Queens last month.

“The days of hoodlums are over.”

As commissioner Roger Goodell has cracked down on player misconduct, he’s made clear his aim is not only to punish lawbreaking but to prevent actions that tarnish the league’s reputation.

Horowitz left no doubt he sees a link between the NFL’s efforts to clean up behavior and the more than 125 High School Player Development clinics the league is running around the country this summer.

Speaking to nearly 150 kids at the start of the camp in Queens, he opened his remarks with this: “The landscape of the NFL is changing.”

“Commissioner Goodell is very stringent in how he hands out punishment,” Horowitz told them.

The HSPD programs, co-sponsored by the National Guard, clinics will reach more than 20,000 high school football players in 34 states.