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.