Criminals on Court

In the U.S. right now, some major news is running about a guy who has a lot of money and invested it into dog fighting, an illegal activity in America. He had a lot of co-conspirators, but they are all turning on him as he is high-profile and he will likely plead guilty to the charges as the case against him is too good to beat.

This story is running mainly on the sports pages.

Doping scandals, NBA referee fixing games, boxers raping, baseball players involved in money laundering and tax evasion and of course, murder all happen among our highly-paid sports stars and it is dominating our sports news. I remember a day last year that 8 of the top 10 stories on the Yahoo! Sports home page had something to do with athletes in trouble. The Cincinnati Bengals (NFL) had 10 players arrested over a 14 month period of time. This pattern is disturbing.

Let's not forget the ex-athlete who should be in jail...if only those gloves had fit.

What worries me more is that most fans just soak it in. When Michael Vick, a talented quarterback, pleads guilty he will likely get a shorter sentence meaning that he still could get back on the (American) football field before his prime is done. He's 27 right now and it is likely some NFL club will give him a chance to come back and earn his millions. I even read an article of a decent sports writer who started to outline the ways he could salvage his career.

I'm all for forgiveness and Mr. Vick deserves every opportunity to move on with his life after serving his time. However, I'm not sure I'd want my team to pick him up no matter how bad they need a quarterback. That position is more than just playing a game, but involves taking a moral lead as so many young, impressionable men/boys are looking up to the man and if we, as a society, tell them it is ok to mess up 'cause you still can get the big bucks, then what are we really accomplishing?