Remember the TV show, "Kids Say the Darndest Things"? I'm thinking about pitching a spin-off called, "Athletes Do the Stupidest Things". The pilot episode will feature embattled New York Giants wide receiver, Plaxico Burress, who thought he needed to pack some heat into a NYC night club, and accidentally popped himself in the leg.
I wish I could make this stuff up. But this actually happened. After all the brilliant crimes committed by not only NFL players, but a gaggle of other professional athletes (i.e. Ugie Urbina and Kobe), one would think that some logic would enter the minds of these highly paid pros.
Apparently not. In many ways, Burress deserves everything headed his way (NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg is angrier than a GM shareholder). If you're stupid enough to bring a gun into a club, then it's only fitting that you shoot yourself in the leg. Life would be far too cruel if Burress had accidentally shot another person.
Of course, there's the argument that the large majority of professional athletes are actually good, law abiding citizens. It's just the select few morons who get all the pub for drowning dogs and brandishing weapons. If anything, pro sports is a microcosm for American life.
But athletes should be held to a higher standard. I don't buy the Charles Barkley "I Am Not A Role Model" credo. These guys are not only role models, but their actions are highly impressionable on kids (I remember screaming like Larry Johnson once after I rejected some kid who was at least half a foot shorter than me).
Wouldn't it be great if we could get through a professional sports season without a domestic abuse charge, weed bust, or a murder?
Hopefully it will happen sooner than later. Because the Michael Vick's and Plaxico Burress' should stand for something aside from sheer stupidity.
They should stand as cautionary tales.
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