I, as a black man am totally disappointed in these and other troublesome black atheletes. I don't understand why these young black men cannot be the most outstanding leaders in the community. They should be generating positive household names like Marvin Harrison, Peyton and Eli Manning, Tiki Barber, Carson Palmer etc. I am in no way hating on them, but come on... It is okay to go to a strip club every now and then. Even visit a casino. As long as you keep these asshole friends and clowns from your entorouge. The way I feel is that if you worked so hard to get these millions of dollars. Why would you do or let anyone do anything to disturb your money flow. It is unfortunate that these guys will eventually **** canned out of the leaugue and working at Sam's or Wal-Mart and complaining that everyone was after them. Give me just 2 million, and I would be the poster motherfucker for the NFL! Peace.

I think it has to do with 3 factors: environment, maturity, and development.

You're referring to the pac man Jones case.
He's only 23.
He graduates college - a smart kid and great athlete at 18.
Gets a scholarship to play football: rides the easy money and the free school to the end of his eligibility and all he has to do is "call coach" whenever theres trouble.

Now he gets his dream.
Never being held accountable, never being held responsible, and never having to own up to his behavior.

He was never taught the true value of that "money flow" nor how to protect it. It was always handed to him and NOT from mom and dad - but from "the man" that treated him with kid gloves.
So he didn't learn to respect himself or others.
He learned; when your golden, "the man" will kiss your backside.

The limits and boundaries he lived by were always fostered and preserved by his coaching staff. He never learned "real life" consequences for his behavior...he learned someone will always bail him out cuz he's a star.

Now he has more money than ever.
Women "looooove" him because he's easy with his money (Thank you Paula for giving young women of the 80s like Jones' mama the "what have you done for me lately?" attitude and mentality).
And "the man" is going to interfere with that and try to challenege him for what he has always been know for - his physical prowess...
Well...escalate that mentality with "use of force"
(Thank you for banning guns and arming criminals)
and you have ignorant people that shoot at others.

I hope he's penalized the max...and allowed to join the military to serve his time. I think serving our country during a time of war will teach him humility, the meaning of service, and self-respect.

They are idiots that don't know how to leave there "hood" alone.

I agree with you man, they all claim to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but at some point they have to grow up and stop acting like a 20 year old kid. Tank Johnson was just released by the Bears for getting in trouble with the law again. I have to think the Bears did the right thing. After last seasons trouble they gave him one more chance, and he ended up disapointing them again. The sad fact is that another team will pick him up and allow him to continue his ways since he is a good player. If I had as many run ins with the law over the last five years as Pac-Man, I would not only be out of a job, I would be sitting in jail.

Just keep in mind, that the idiots are a small percentage of athletes who get a large percentage of the media coverage.
No one reports good news, or if it is reported, it certainly doesn't make the headlines, or get talked about on talk radio. Did you see the piece on Dwayne Wade on ESPN Sunday, where he met a kid who's wish was to play ball with D-Wade? Deuce McAllister spoke out recently against thug athletes, saying it makes it harder for him to make business deals as he prepares for life after football. I wish we could always counter every bad news story with at least one good news story, because they are out there. Every occupation has idiots working for them. There are even law-breaking preachers, judges and policemen. But, you're right. It is very frustrating to se people blessed with so much, and they don't realize what they have.

I believe some of the problems relate to the athlete's environment. However, I believe the real problem is the system. They are babied at an early age and are not asked to account for themselves. I remember back in the late seventies two Miami Dolphin linemen were arrested and convicted for selling a subtantial amount of cocaine. The judge let them off with probation because of the preferrential treatment they received over their football careers that created the situation in the first place and the defense argued that it would be unfair to punish these athletes because football was all they could do.
Right!!!
Not much has changed over the years until recently as the NFL is now trying to cleanup the mess and deal with these athletes. The judicial system is still a joke when it involves a professional athlete. Somehow if I had sold cociane in the 70s and got busted I don't think the judge would have placed me on probation.