Ryan Moats has never made headlines because of his play on the football field, slicing and dicing between defenders like Harrison Ford. Moats leaves that job to Steve Slaton. But in March of 2009, Moats became the 387.5th NFL player (can you really count Dante Stallworth a football player?) to be confronted by a police officer in the last year (or so it seemed). However, this time it was different. This time, the cop was in the wrong.
Moats, his wife, and a few family friends were at his home when they got word that his mother-in-law was rapidly dying from breast cancer, so they did was all normal families do in this situation; they rushed to the hospital as quickly and safely as possible to be by her side. Moats drove and had his hazard lights on, and he decided that a red light wasn't going to stop his wife from seeing her mother one last time. So he ran it (slowly, as the video shows) and a cop pulled him over and threatened to "screw him over" as Moats was pleading with him to let him go see his dying mother-in-law. Moats' wife raced into the hospital (after the officer pointed his gun at her and told her to get back into the car) and the cop delayed Moats by more than 13 minutes, but by the end, it was too late.
It's a very unfortunate incident, and Moats actually did something that a lot of NFL players haven't done in this situation- he acted with class. He was clearly distressed and upset that the hick cop was not understanding, but he didn't walk away, or push him, or anything of the sort. He never mentioned he was an NFL Player to try to get out of the situation, he didn't try to make an example of the cop by bringing this story to the public eye (it was first reported by an ABC affiliate), and he accepted the now resigned officer's apology. A lot of players can learn from this situation, and it's amazing Moats kept his cool regarding the circumstances. Here's a video of his interview on Good Morning America that includes footage of the incident:
http://texans.fandome.com/video/110831/NFL-Player-Ryan-Moats-and-Wife-Talk-to-Good-Morning-America/
