This is something that has been bothering me for a long time, and I am sure it has bothered a lot of you as well. Why are athletes treated differently than the average human being. They get away with cutting classes and skipping homework at the low end of the spectrum and they get away with criminal activity and miscellaneous troubling acts. I know this is the case being an athlete. I played basketball at a small school and also got privileges in high school. I missed a lot of school as a junior and senior, but our team was number one in the city in D1 (the big school grouping in Ohio). I got a slap on the wrist and they turned my ten saturday schools (6 hours of school on a Saturday) into just one before I graduated. In college, I continually missed school and could make up any excuse saying I had basketball and still get full credit for being there. I also got preferential treatment when it came to scheduling classes and free meals in the school facilities. Like I said not big rewards, but also not things that everyone would have been afforded.
These days athletes in the big time seem to think they are invincible, and we make them feel that way. We pay tons of money to watch them play a game and talk about them all day long. It's addicting. I pay almost $60 a month just to watch football all season, and really just to watch the Minnesota Vikings. These athletes are very aware of that and they know people will listen when they talk and will show respect when they cross each other on the street, whether it is deserved or not. The punishments have gotten better in the NFL. Roger Goodell had made a lot of good changes to take these guys out of football, but it is never enough. Pacman Jones was playing for the Cincinnati Bengals, my hometown team, this weekend and my girlfriend had no idea that he was and still may be a criminal. The man was arrested over a dozen times for terrible things and those are just the acts he was caught on. Michael Vick ran a huge underground dog fighting ring and went to jail for around 18 months and is now back starting in the NFL. Plus, he is the big story of the week after getting injured. I am sure some real serious animal activists may still not like him, but a lot of people forgave him the minute they saw him weaving in and out of defenders against the Packers a few weeks ago. The list goes on.
The NFL seems to have a large problem with criminal activity. Plaxico Burress, a former superstar sits in prison. The Bengals seem to have picked up every talented player with a record. Other sports have gotten involved. Other sports have numerous cheaters. Even bicyclists have produced a large plethora of cheaters. If you take steroids, it is cheating. It enhances you above the skill and body type that you were born with and makes you something physically better. That's not acceptable. In college football, you have someone like Reggie Bush who is basically wiped out of the USC records, and no not just the record books. If you didn't know better, you would not have any knowledge that he even attended the school if you looked at their website or media guide. That is because Reggie Bush took a lot of financial support from agents while in school. Why? You get every meal free at that school on scholarship, plus living expenses and your tuition. Why do you need to have an expensive car and a big screen television? To get girls? Doubt it, you are a Heisman Trophy winner, you can get plenty of girls. Maybe just to feel big time, before you make it to the big time? I don't necessarily think college athletes don't deserve a tiny portion of money from the tickets they sell, but then again that is just the way it is. That is what keeps amateur sports more honest and that is the difference between playing in college and making it to the professional level.
I think athletes should be treated in a more strict manner when they commit crimes. I am not talking about DUI's, we are talking like shooting at people, killing dogs, and doing drugs. It will be hard to change though. When a judge from the same city where the athlete plays is also the judge sentencing them for a crime how hard is it for them to give the max. If you love Michael Vick and you are a Falcons fan during that crisis, how are you fairly sentencing them when you secretly may want him back on the field ASAP? It would probably be hard for me, and I can't lie about that. It's hard for me to stay mad at Vick after watching him destroy the Lions a couple of weeks ago. But, we have to put our morals above the game. We don't have to stop talking about sports though, don't worry I wouldn't ask anyone to promise something I wouldn't be able to. But, the more honest we are the more level headed we may make some of the athletes we root for every week.
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