Personal Offense Scale

Athletes are thought of as role models, and are therefore subjected to unfair scrutiny when they make mistakes. It seems like athletes are making these mistakes all too frequently. Just recently we have had Michael Phelps hitting that bong (the picture seen around the world) and A-Rod's admission to taking performance enhancing drugs. The public/media reaction for these offenses, just like all scandals that involve athletes, has been varied. Some people have compared smoking marijuana to speeding or cheating on your taxes while others have demanded the full prosecution of the law. For the record, the DA in whatever South Carolina county that is reeks of desperation in his/her attempt for nationwide attention. Arresting people because a picture has been circulated weeks after the incident? Please. A-Rod's steroid admission has earned him praise in some courts, even though he only admitted it because his name was leaked, where as baseball purists are adamant in declaring that this whole era of baseball is tainted.

Steroids is actually a great example to prove the point about varied reactions by the media and the court of public opinion. Barry Bonds, A-Rod, McGwire, etc. get killed by the media for their use of performance enhancing drugs. As if the public shame isn't enough, Hall of Fame voters develop vendettas against these so-called cheaters, despite their extraordinary talents. Contrastly, Shawn Merriman, a Pro Bowl Linebacker of the San Diego Chargers, tests positive for performance enhancing drugs and the media treats it like an injury. "Shawn Merriman will miss four games." "The Chargers Defense will struggle until they get Merriman back." "Merriman, despite missing four games, is still a pro bowler."

A blog named Free Darko has recognized this disparity and has called for a personal offense scale that would put all athletes on a level playing field in terms of what their punishment and subsequent media reaction should be. It should be noted that my scale was constructed by assuming that each transgression was committed by a player on my favorite team.

15.) Complaining about one's contract- This happens all the time and more often than not I side with the athlete in question. Arizona Cardinals Wide Reciever Anquan Boldin is the most recent athlete to do so and he has a legitimate gripe. The Cardinals signed his teammate Larry Fitzgerald to a long term deal (something like 4 years for $40 million), but have refused to do the same for him even though Boldin's numbers are eerily similar to Fitzgerald's. In 80 career games Boldin has caught 502 passes for 6496 yards and 40 TD's. In 76 career games Fitzgerald has caught426 passes for 5975 yards and 46 TD's.

The opposing argument is that you have no right to complain if you are under a contract. I agree with this line of thinking to a certain extent, but contract extensions occur frequently enough in professional sports for athletes who feel that they are underpaid to complain. My only complaint with all this is if the athlete doesn't have the numbers to back it up.

14.) Sexual Infidelity- When it comes to professional athletes, this is a given. I think I would say that 75% of professional athletes cheat on their spouses (that's MLB, NBA, and the NFL- is the NHL lockout over yet?) That number might even be higher. This offense is rather insignificant because it doesn't involve criminal charges and the athlete's performance does not suffer. Let me put it this way. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant both cheated on their wives and they did just fine on the basketball court.

Jordan/Kobe is another glaring example of a varied media/public reaction. Jordan cheated on his wife countless times and she eventually divorced him. Kobe Bryant cheated on his wife (probably up until he got caught) and I believe has not done so since. The media didn't bring up Jordan's infidelity because they subjectively handled their coverage of him. They were not reporters. They were fans writing stories about him. Kobe, on the other hand, was ripped because of the changing focus of the American media. After the Monica Lewinsky scandal, everyone became an overly critical investigator. The watchdog mentality has since been furthered with the coverage of A-Rod's infidelity in Toronto. Now I am not absolving Kobe Bryant for his offense, in fact he's lucky his wife is superficial enough to let a 3 million dollar ring do the trick, but I am saying that the media treated his situation much differently than Jordan's.

13.) Making it rain- Adam "Pac Man" Jones made this one famous while in a strip club in Vegas and only ran into trouble when he tried to reclaim all of the money that he threw around. If you have the money to throw around in a club than by all means do it. I don't care if your poor judgment leaves you with no money after you retire. Just don't be an idiot and try to get your money back after flaunting it in a club.

12.) Racism- It's rare that a story breaks involving an athlete and racial impropriety; however I suspect that plenty of athletes have racist sentiments. Kerry Collins, quarterback for the Tennessee Titans, while a member of the Carolina Panthers once called his teammate Muhsin Muhammad, a wide receiver, a "nigger" while at a bar in South Carolina. Apparently this slur was attributed to Collins' larger problem; alcohol, but as you know, the drunk tongue speaks what the sober mind thinks. Collins was able to lead that Panther team to the NFC championship game, so I don't think his racism/alcoholism was that much of a problem.

In fact, I don't find racism to be that big of a problem in sports. On a given team, white guys can hang out with other white guys and black guys can hang out with other black guys. Not everyone on every team is going to get along. Talent, coaching, and focus can outweigh a lack of racial harmony. Unfortunately for the Cowboys they didn't have much coaching or focus this past season. Don't try to tell me that the Romo/Witten/TO thing didn't have racial overtones.

11.) Being a bad teammate- Being a bad teammate has differing consequences based on the sport. Barry Bonds was probably the worst teammate in the history of sports, but he produced on the field, albeit his production was steroid induced. In football, it's an issue, but there are enough other players on the field, and hopefully enough team leaders, to minimize the problem. Bad teammates are the most destructive forces as basketball players. Selfish gunners that only care about their own success, I'm looking at you Stephon, simply ruin teams.

10.) Getting a DUI- Athletes are forced to deal with a lot of stress. Alcohol is a good remedy. Just don't kill anyone on the road and I'm okay with it.

9.) Shooting yourself/Gun Charges- Thank you for this new one Plaxico Burress. As a Giants fan, I want Burress back. I knew he was a moron well before he shot himself. Remember when he got up and spiked the ball after catches with the Steelers two years in a row only to see the fumbles recovered by the opposing team? There are two issues with this though. Number one is health. This bullet wound better not slow him down. Number two is the gun charges. If you are a professional athlete and feel that you need a gun to protect yourself, why are you buying it on the black market? Get a gun license and buy one legally (I guess my advice is just a little late. Right Marshawn?).

8.) Drug Abuse- This was probably the most difficult offense to rank because drug abuse comes in varying degrees. I don't care if an athlete smokes weed. Hell, I'd estimate that 40 percent of the NBA tokes up in the off season. Need proof? One. Two. Three. Four. Five. That took about 10 seconds.

Drug abuse becomes a problem for me when the drug in question is more serious. The penalty under the law is in direct correlation with how egregious I find the act. Matt Jones, Jacksonville Jaguars Wide Receiver, is a cocaine dealer, but somehow got to play all year (probably because he's white). These offenses bother me as a fan because cocaine, heroine, etc. usually lead to jail time and that means the player on my team is never going to be the same.

7.) Performance enhancing drugs- I understand the 'everybody was doing it' argument and almost appreciate the desire to get better and help the team. In fact, a high school teacher of mine had a sign in her classroom that said, "There are no shortcuts on the road to success," that I found to be 100% wrong. Surely, there are plenty of shortcuts. Steroids, just like me copying someone else's homework, gets you to somewhere you want to be quicker. I'm not too big on the integrity of the game and all that nonsense. I also think that there are so many 'performance enhancing drugs' out there nowadays , like creatine for example, that weren't around when all these records were set. I generally don't see what the big deal is, but at the same time I recognize the ill effects of steroid use. Look no further than what happened with Chris Benoit.

6.) Dogfighting/Animal Cruelty- I won't be sending my PETA application in anytime soon, but my problem with this offense is that of the perpetrator's mind. The type of person that would do these sort of things for enjoyment is not the type of person that I want representing my team. I don't care how talented they are. They are no doubt, equally sick in the head.

5.) Murder- Murder is only at number 5? Yeah and I'll explain why. Murder for professional athletes should be very simple. If they want someone dead, all they have to do is hire someone else to do it without leaving a paper trail. Simple solution, paying the assassin in straight cash homey. I also understand that some guys might want to pull the trigger themselves. If so, all they have to do is take the person that has wronged them to a private location, kill them, and then have their cronies dispose of the body. A prerequisite for this personal execution is preparing a sound proof alibi with a number of witnesses. Murder is obviously pretty serious, but if it's the linebacker of my favorite team than I'm okay with it because that's the mindset that I want him to have.

4.) Shooting another person- This is much worse than murder, because it just shows that you are a pussy and can't get the job done. It also leaves much more of a chance for you to get caught because the victim does not die. My main man Marvin Harrison of the Indianapolis Colts, and formerly of the Syracuse Orangmen, was charged with this crime last year, but thankfully the charge was later dropped.

3.) Domestic Abuse- Athletes have come down on both sides of the issue. Former MLB pitcher Chuck Finley got beat by his wife whereas Jason Kidd beat his wife. As I've said numerous times, hitting girls is almost never acceptable, no matter how big of an irrational bitch they are being.

This might sound a bit contradictory as I all but defended Eric Devendorf for hitting a girl in my last post. 1.) Devo's haymaker doesn't count as domestic abuse because he is not married to that broad. 2.) His moral compass is so fucked up that I do not like him as a person, I just like him because of the name on the front of his jersey.

Hitting your wife, and mother of your children, is simply not acceptable. If I were the owner of a professional sports franchise, I would trade/release any athlete guilty of this offense.

2.) Disrespecting America- How someone could not appreciate the opportunities that this country has provided for them is beyond me. Josh Howard is dead to me. This especially pisses me off because there is no criminal penalty for this blatant disrespect. I don't know how Dallas Maverick fans sleep at night.

It also must be noted that some athletes have chosen to turn their back to the flag during the national anthem as a display of political disagreement. Former Toronto Blue Jay Carlos Delgado once chose this method of political discourse to show his opposition to the war in Iraq. As an American citizen you are entitled to your opinion and can express political dissent. I'm fine with that, but never, and I mean never turn your back on the American flag.

1.) Rape- Before anyone even thinks of it, let me again reiterate that Kobe Bryant had consensual sex with that blond in Colorado. She cried wolf simply to make some cash, which we did receive by way of a settlement. Rape is the most heinous, disgusting crime out there. There is no silver lining. In fact there's not even any shades of gray. Rape is all black. Convicted rapists should not be allowed to play professional sports.