Vick says, "I need to grow up"

Michael Vick has been caught running a brutal dog fighting ring and now faces perhaps five years of jail time. Vick called his conduct immature and said, "I need to grow up." That ranks as a finalist for Understatement of the Decade. Dog fighting is a brutal experience for the dogs throughout their lives. The lucky ones who are good fighters are subjected to abuses designed to make them ferocious until they reach fighting age. A few bloody victories later, the best ones are bred and no longer have to lose pieces of their ears in the ring. For the unlucky majority remaining, they live through the same toughening abuses before they get killed in the ring by a superior dog or killed by their owners through hanging or electrocution. Witnesses claim Vick killed eight dogs personally using these methods. At 27, Vick is a confessed felon and all he can say is, "I need to grow up."
Why are athletes forming this pattern of behavior? Why do we have men like Ron Artest, who gets on the basketball court just long enough to earn another suspension? Why was Pacman Jones wanted by police in multiple different cities for fights that nearly all happened late at night outside strip clubs? Why did Michael Vick run this brutal and inhumane dog fighting ring? And don't get me started on Ray Lewis. Why have they not grown up? The answer to this question is simple: BECAUSE THEY HAVE LEARNED BY EXPERIENCE THAT THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING. Their teachers and coaches at all levels in school taught them that they could do whatever they wanted to do as long as they could run a fast 40 and jump a high vertical and hit the critical shots in the games, etc. Simultaneously, these same coaches taught their well-behaved athletes that good conduct off the field is of no value.
Two years ago, one of my friends was teaching Physical Education at the Middle School level. Some of her students sytematically disobeyed her on multiple occasions, so she gave them detentions. They defied her; they would not serve detention because they were athletes and their coaches would get them out of it. She reported their words to the Principal and the Principal informed her that her students would indeed be excused from detention because it conflicted with basketball practice. These are 12-year-old kids we're talking about!!! They already feel above the rules and free to break whichever ones they choose. Earlier this summer, some football players from Wheeler High School robbed a store at gunpoint and now they face hard jail time. Why? They did it because they had never paid consequences for breaking rules.
The solution to this problem is as simple as the problem itself: we need today's coaches to RESURRECT THE BEAR. When Bear Bryant coached the Crimson Tide, he had rules that players broke at their peril. His hotshot young quarterback from Pennsylvania, Joe Namath, recalls that on the first day of practice he had a rude awakening. The Bear grabbed him by his facemask and told him, "boy, when I'm talking to you, you look me in the eyes and call me Sir!" When Namath was a Junior, he broke some team rules (stayed out too late, ie. did not commit any crime) and Bryant made him sit the bench during the National Championship Game. Joe Namath said later that that was the best thing that ever happened to him. He learned from his mistake and never made a bigger one during his distinguished pro career. The Bear won six National Championship titles, so he proved once and for all that coaches who discipline their players can do as well as or better than coaches who recruit from the police lineups. The bonus for Bryant is, he also got to sleep at night with a clear conscience.

Hank Aaron is King

Now that the sad days of Bonds inking his name into the record books - by fair means and foul - are upon us, I think I should make a few things clear. I have read bloggers denouncing the fans who dislike Bonds as racists and haters of every sort under the sun. Neither racism nor hatred has any place in this discussion, and everyone on both sides knows it. The only reason people place asterisks by Bonds' records is that he used substances to improve his bulk, whereas Hank Aaron hit 755 home runs the honest way. By looking at his arms, anyone can see that Aaron never took steroids or any other artificial enhancers. His stats tell the same story: Aaron never hit more than 47 home runs in a season, but he broke 40 eight times and played consistently good baseball for a very long period of time. In his first fifteen seasons, Bonds never slugged over .700 or hit over 50 home runs. Suddenly, in 2001, he slugged .863 and hit 73 home runs to surpass McGwire's record. How many times has he surpassed 70 since then? Answer: 0. How many times has he surpassed 60 since then? Answer: 0. How many times has he hit over 50 since 2001? Answer: 0. The statistical explosion that was the 2001 season raises questions as to how a man of his age could commit such remarkable feats and gain so much muscle. It seems logically sound to suppose that Bonds is taking or has been taking human growth hormone. That would explain his shoe and hat sizes expanding, his accumulation of muscle bulk, and his ability to sustain his muscular growth. Steroids cause a rapid increase in muscle followed by a sudden decline, which Bonds has not experienced. The simple, irrefutable fact is that men of Bonds' age do not naturally accumulate muscle as he has done and experience hat and shoe size growth of any kind. It does not matter that he has not actually tested positive for drugs: it is painfully obvious that he has taken them.
I don't hate Barry Bonds, nor do I bear him any kind of ill will. Fans like me have tolerated his extremely arrogant attitude and lack of appreciation to the fans and never dispute that he belongs in the Hall of Fame. The only player to hit 500 home runs and steal 500 bases belongs in Cooperstown no matter who he is. Substances do not help a player develop the keen eye and lightning reflexes that enable him to hit a ball traveling at 100 miles per hour. Moreover, Bonds accomplished these two feats before substances had become an issue. The problem we have with Bonds is his "breaking" Hank Aaron's record for career home runs. Aaron played honestly using his natural talent and hard work. Bonds used talent, work, and substances, so his statistics, whatever they end up being, deserve an asterisk. Aaron is still the Home Run King.