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ROB, PLEASE MAKE THIS A REGULAR FEATURE

Guess what everybody? An NFL player has been charged with a crime!!!! I didn't see this coming at all. I mean, professional athletes getting caught in comprimising positions? No way!!!

Now that I have gotten that out the way. On this weeks episode of Law and Order:NFL, New Orleans Saints DE Charles Grant has been charged with involuntary manslaughter from an altercation in February. This is the same altercation that Grant was stabbed in the neck, outside the club in his hometown of Blakely, Georgia.
(I went to college in Southwest Georgia (Albany State University) and I am familiar with the town. It is a very modest town to say the least)

He was charged in association with another gentleman who was initially charged in the double murder of a pregnant young lady, and her baby.

Although 2 people lost their lives in the situation, this points out a bigger problem with Athletes and keeping it real.

After a two-year hiatus from the NFL, Odell Thurman was ready to rectify his previous problems off the field by becoming an upstanding citizen. As it has been chronicled on this site, yeah, members of the Cincinnati Bengals have had a "few" brushes with the law. But Thurman has kept a low profile.

Today, Thurman was released by the Bengals for lack of attendance during the off-season workouts. Thurman's reason was that he was handling family business in Georgia. His grandmother recently passed away and he was still mourning with his family, etc. When issues with family arise, I understand taking the necessary time to adjust and start back on the path towards healing.

My issue with Marvin Lewis is how he responded to the situation.
Here is his quote via ESPN:

"The NFL provided Odell the opportunity to earn his way back onto our team, but we have not seen the right steps taken by him," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. "With our offseason work in progress and new talent added at our linebacker position, we've determined it's best to keep moving in a direction that does not include Odell."

I don't have a lot of respect for Marvin for his nonchalant attitude toward a player who was ready to repay him for the faith that was put into him from the management, which led to his reinstatement. Marvin Lewis has proved that he is a little lost when it comes to leadership.

There are people who believe that Utah is the 2nd best team not only in the West but also in the entire NBA. The Lakers just eliminated them in six games. Two more rounds to go before the article is written that I predicted could be written when I first penned "Darth Kobe".

The NFL is the most successful professional sports league in the US. Even so, there seems to be an air of secrecy around it. The drugs aren't as outlined as they are in the MLB. NFL Refs never seem to be dirty like the NBA's, and there aren't money problems such as the NHL's.

However, it would seem lately that the seedy underbelly of the once impenetrable league is showing. With Spygate getting press and Roger Goodell getting rid of/ hiding/ sweeping evidence under the rug, this has to make anyone question just how this league operates, especially when it would seem that, when not dealing with America's Team,* Goodell has been known to slam the gauntlet hard.

* Sorry Dallas...it's the Patriots these days.

Brady was asked about some of ESPN's ex-NFL players who have criticized the Patriots. "It's just kind of the environment right now, though," he said on WEEI. "I think that's the way that guys make it. They just say the craziest things. That's what ESPN has become. ESPN, to me, is like MTV without the videos, ESPN is without the highlights."

-- ESPN.com news services

In the immortal words of Tupac:

"This is the realist sh*t I ever wrote"

Most athletes are afraid to take on ESPN for the simple fact that "The World Wide Leader" has the ability to turn an entire nation of "follower" fans against them (see: Chad Johnson, T.O. and Barry Bonds). However, Brad,y obviously understanding that he is bigger than ESPN, doesn't care and for that I applaud him. Even though his team are cheaters, it was not as bad as some media outlets made it out to be seeing that everyone cheats. I am glad he stood up and told the truth about what everyone else is thinking.

Maybe now we can all stop talking about spygate. Matt Walsh turned over tapes to the NFL which, in essence, confirmed, what we already knew, that the Patriots are cheaters. That was established a long time ago. So this isn't news.

He didn't have the tape of the infamous Super Bowl walk through that the Boston Herald claims to exist. So in reality, this is much to do about nothing. The football gods have already punished the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick more than Roger Goddell ever could. How else could you explain an 18-0 team getting beat in the Super Bowl? If you don't believe in fate and karma you should now. So please no more spygate talk. It is a dead issue.

Now just which league is the Thug League?

After all of these arrests, allegations, and God knows what else, how is it that the NFL hasn't gotten the Thug label that the NBA has? The NFL has a rap sheet at least twice as long as the NBA's, maybe three times longer, and they get away with it while the NBA suffers and gets labeled the Thug League that mainstream America just couldn't bring itself to support in large numbers anymore. How does that happen? Chris Henry alone has more arrests than we've had from NBA players over the past several years, and yet the NBA is the criminal league. Pac Man Jones is the only pro athlete facing charges for what happened at the NBA All Star Weekend, and yet the NBA gets tarnished for it as much as the NFL? I know I've been down this road before, but everytime I see an NFL player get arrested and the way the media handles it, I get upset. This Marvin Harrison thing is no different in that it's being treated as an individual incident and not being symbolic of a league run amok.

Now we all know the double standard is more about imagery than actual criminality. Tattoos, jewelry, baggy pants, hip hop, and conspicuous entourages all conspire to inspire both fear and hostility in a large portion of the sports fanbase, and these things are all on display much more in the NBA than in the NFL. Some people see those things and jump to conclusions whereas you don't see any of that during a football game. The tats are covered up by jerseys and pads, as are the jewelry. The entourages, if they're even in the building, don't stand out among 50,000 plus people the way they do sitting courtside at an NBA game. You don't have postgame press conferences where star players go on rants about 'practice' and 'both teams playing hard', so the attitude isn't put on display like it is after NBA games. And finally, with football players you're dealing with a lot of guys who could easily fit amongst us regualr folk in that most of them are no taller or bigger than you and I. There's no mistaking Rahseed Wallace for a keyboard puncher like myself.

All that being said, how about some objectivity from the media? How about we treat everyone as an individual, no matter the sport they play, and judge them for what they do instead of their entire league. No sports league is full of noble gladiators or criminals; there are many of both in all of them. How about we tell the truth instead of playing up the usual narratives? How about we not act so shocked at Marvin Harrison, especially with his history, and then turn around and treat Josh Howard like he's the typical NBA player? That's all I'm asking; is it too much?

"If you have kids you want them to play like Marvin Harrison. He is a good guy. He gives the ball to the ref and does not act like a fool as opposed to his counter part Chad Johnson a bad guy". Scott Van Pelt ESPN Radio

No, no, no, no, no!!!! You know something, I am tired of this. If you only read one article from BlackSportsOnline, this is the one I want you to read. If you aren't an idiot, an imbecile, a fool, a numbskull, an ignoramus or just a flat out retard, you are going to read this statement. Repeat it twice and never forget it:

"YOU CAN NOT JUDGE SOMEONE' S CHARACTER BY HIS ACTIONS ON A COURT OR FIELD."

Honestly, do you know how stupid you sound when you judge how a person acts off the field from a few highlight clips on ESPN? Do you know how foolish you sound when you say a person is classy because he hands the ball to the ref and doesn't trash talk? It is just idiotic talk and it is time for that to stop. ESPN is not your moral compass. Chris Berman is influencing you by his commentary. Do a search on YouTube and you will see just how nice some of your prized athletes are in real life.

The simple fact is you don't know what is happening behind close doors. If I told you two weeks ago that an NFL Wide Receiver would be involved in a gun incident and asked you to pick the most likely and least likely receiver to be involved, I am 100% sure that the first two names that would be considered most likely would be:

1- Chad Johnson
2- T.O.

And the least likely would be:

1- Marvin Harrison

I am all for romance and what not, but you have to be a little smarter Rashard Mendenhall. You can't be walking around at 2am in a beautiful but not so safe part of Chicago. Mendenhall was robbed at gunpoint while taking a leisurely stroll with a lady friend. Luckily for him and his friend they weren't harmed. I was going to write about how Mendenhall, soon to be a multiple millionaire, needs to be aware that he is now a target of "Grand Theft Auto" proportions. But then my some of my friends in Chicago told me it wouldn't have mattered if he was Homie the Clown, he still would have gotten jacked. The lesson here is, millionaire or working class Joe, just be aware of your surroundings because you have enough to worry about than getting your life taken over a wallet and a chain.

I don't trust the police, so my initial reaction to the Cedric Benson boat incident is to believe Benson's version of events. Then again this is Cedric Benson. So it is quite possible he is making the whole thing up and the police were just doing their job.

Here is what we know. There were some alcholic beverages on Benson's boat and the police pulled it over. Benson says he wasn't drunk. He said he passed all the sobriety tests and corporated fully with the cops. The police say that Benson was drunk, didn't pass the tests and was resisting arrest. If it turns that Benson's version of events are true (the mug shot makes you wonder), then anyone who came to conclusions before all the facts came out should apologize. It is easier to assign guilt to a player who is considered a bust as opposed to a player everyone assumes was a great guy (see: Marvin Harrison, more on that later).