Change

A couple weeks ago, three freshmen University of Tennessee football players and a female accomplice were arrested for attempted robbery at a convenience store near campus. Since then, two of the players have been permanently removed from the team. While one of the players, who had his charges dropped, has been reinstated by the head football coach, Lane Kiffin. In this instance, the crime itself is outweighed by the people who actually committed the crime.

When you think of the people that commit robberies, you think of people in low economic standing or in a bad position in life. You don't think of student athletes with a lot of potential in front of them. One thought about this, though, is were these youth athletes are coming from and their lives before they were recruited to be football players in college. For many of these football players, they are the first generation in their family to go to college. This could mean that they come from poor families that may also be single parent. This all comes into effect with the Social Disorganization theory which explains how those factors can contribute to delinquent behavior.

This case is very isolated with only a couple of players committing the attempted robbery. But the fact that it is isolated with all of the student athletes coming from under privileged families shows the ability for athletics in college to affect these people's lives. A person who may not get into college because of grades who can get in because of athletics can have a life altering experience to change their life for the better.

Five for Fighting

Hockey and it's penalty system is in a way a condensed version of our criminal justice system. You commit a crime, or in hockey a Penalty, and you have to serve time for your offense. Time in the penalty box (or prison cell), all by yourself to think of your offense and reform yourself as you watch your teammates (family and friends), play on without you. These penalties also can vary in length just like real life crimes. Small infractions like tripping, hooking, or delay of game (tossing the puck over the sideboard glass) can get you two minutes penalty time in the box. More serious offenses like drawing blood while high sticking or cross-checking can get you a double minor penalty with up to four minutes in your cell. But fighting, one of the highest penalties in hockey, can get you five minutes in the box, and if you started the fight, you can sometimes be ejected for the rest of the game.

If you compare these penalties with the various crimes and punishments, you could see the minor penalties could

be like petty theft or other small crimes that wouldn't merit much jail time. A step up would be crimes of a medium

nature like assault and battery and such. But the equivalent to the five for fighting and instigation would be murder,

attempted murder, manslaughter and other serious crimes. And penalty minutes do not always end up the only punishment.

If a player's actions are so heinous, the league office will suspend a player for whole games, depending on the offense.

An example of a heinous offense would be that done by Todd Bertuzzi. Bertuzzi was suspended for the rest of the season

after attacking an opposing player from behind, putting him in the hospital.

Other sports may have penalties, but only hockey seems to directly mirror our criminal justice system.

Aggression

In early August, a story came out of Napa, CA about the head coach of the Oakland Raiders, Tom Cable, assaulting and breaking the jaw of one of his defensive coaches. After a lengthy investigation the Napa District Attorney decided not to press assault and battery charges against Cable, citing that the case would not be worth pursuing. During a period of turmoil in the NFL with news of players in legal trouble, the one constant seemed to be that coaches were the leading example. But in this instance the coach stooped down to a lower level and assaulted his assistant and physically hurting him.

The story would have died right there, becoming a side story and the butt of some jokes. But just recently, ESPN broke a story saying that ex-girlfriends and ex-wives of Cable had said they were beaten and physically abused by him. This crime, if true, is something that socially is unacceptable to most and also shows a prior history of violence that could have been helpful in the court case for the assault as a showing a history of violence.

Tom Cable's team, the Oakland Raiders, are infamous around the NFL for being the most dysfunctional organization in football if not in American sports. With a history of the kicker, Sebastian Janikowki, getting in trouble with the law, and now the head coach, trouble seems to be coming from the places you would least likely believe. But being the coach of the Raiders, and therefore becoming exposed to the nation, was the downfall for Cable in the end.

There is no public knowledge whether or not the DA was looking into the past history of Cable beating his ex-wives and girlfriends. But since it was such a large story to the NFL, the journalists at ESPN decided to look into Cable's past, digging up the stories of Cable's past violence. Now the NFL head office is looking into these claims which could lead to Cable being suspended or being fired. Somebody with a job out of the public spotlight who had assault charges against them dropped would never be investigated. They would just continue on with their lives. So with the fame and glory with being in the public spotlight comes the price that your past is not private at all.

Time Well Wasted

Mark McGwire was recently hired as the hitting coach for his old team, the St. Louis Cardinals. Mark McGwire, a prolific home run hitting during his playing days, has recently had his career tainted with allegations of steroid use. During the 90's, McGwire along with Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa were credited with helping to revive baseball with their home run record chase. Now, both of these former ball player's careers are tainted by these allegations. Congress decided to step in and get information about players using steroids in baseball, creating a committee to interview suspected steroid users. After all the testimony, congress decided that two athletes, Barry Binds and Roger Clemens, had lied to them so they brought Perjury charges against them in 2007.

Today, two years later, these cases are still being fought in court, using up the time, money, and resources of the Federal Courts. Should the government gotten involved in this controversy? This is a sport, not a pressing social matter, but a sport. Government resources could be spent towards a need that the public would benefit from. Who benefits from putting Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens in jail? Of course, lying to a congressional committee is against the law and people have been convicted of perjury before. The government should not have gone this far into investigating matters like steroid use in baseball. Senators wanting to get face time on ESPN shouldn't waste their time pursuing cheating athletes instead of crime bosses.