Time for free passes to stop
Sports Scene
Ross Wood Sports Editor

To be honest I do not see professional athletes, actors and actresses as role models.

Just because they get paid a lot of money to do what they do does not annoint them to be what we should all aspire to be.

A few weeks ago we saw a minor league manager for the Atlanta Braves go through a tirade after being ejected from a ball game. The coach covered home plate with dirt, threw second and third base into the outfield, then grabbed the pitcher's rosin bag and threw it at home plate like it was a hand grenade.

After all of that he finally exited the field. The Braves disciplined him somewhat, but I think they didn't go far enough.

When someone does something like that then maybe it is time they got a regular job at the mill or something. They should not have the luxury of coaching at such a high level.

A month or two in a hard, manual labor type job would do the trick.

Then look at the professional football players like Pacman Jones and Tank Johnson.

Jones has been involved with incidents involing the police 12 times in the last year.

Finally the NFLstepped up and said he was suspended for an entire season.

That means no football for a whole year. If he gets in any trouble in that time spand then he will be done forever. Now that is an attention getter.

Tank Johnson had a slew of legal issues but was allowed to play in the Super Bowl for the Chicago Bears. He was already under the gun when he was arrested this week and the Bears stepped up and waived him. That is a fancy term for firing him.

Finally one of these professional organizations is doing something to improve their image.

As soon as Major League Baseball and the NBA do the same thing, then maybe the athletes will realize that playing at that level for that much money is an honor and is one that can be taken away if they do not obey the rules the same as the rest of us.

I guess I am just getting older or something.

These folks get paid a whole lot of money to play a kids game and then they get put on pedestals and worshiped. Then are held to a different set of standards, that is true. But when they break the most common of rules they should be made to pay the same price as the common man.

You see kids every day looking and yearning to one day take their talents to the highest level. The people they look at modeling themselves after are not a pretty sight.

Now I am not saying that I am a role model in any sense of the word. But the last time I checked there were not youth leagues all over the United States preparing our youth to become sports writers.

I may be wrong but I have yet to see a program on ESPN dedicated to a group figuring out how to cover three all-star tournaments, at three different locations, all at the same time.

That's all folks.......

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