If athletes were paid to be remorseful, they would never go broke. There are times in an athlete’s life we will never understand, but there is no reason why they should be treated above the law.
When Donté Stallworth was accused of DUI manslaughter in Florida in 2009 and got away with less than 30 days in jail, I knew something was wrong. Regardless of whether that man was illegally crossing the street or not, Stallworth should have never been behind the wheel of that car in the first place.
How could someone only get a month in jail for killing a person, you ask? The judge for the case found that it wasn’t Stallworth’s fault when he hit the man. Now I know “jaywalking” is also illegal, but reports said that the man was rushing to get on a bus home after a graveyard shift a little after 7 a.m. when he was hit by Stallworth. I don’t see why it wouldn’t be his fault if he was driving drunk at 7 in the morning, but then again, I’m no judge.
Since the accident, I’m sure that Stallworth has had his share of bad memories, but he should have never been allowed to play in the NFL again. I have no idea what went through Commissioner Rodger Goodell’s head when he let him come back after only a year-long suspension.
However, this isn’t the only case in which Goodell has made a bad decision. Michael Vick’s dog fighting case is, arguably, worse than Stallworth’s case. While I was shocked to hear that Vick could have done something so horrible as finance and even partake in illegal dog fighting, I was even more shocked when Goodell let him play in the NFL again.
The NFL isn’t the only league that has these types of things happening. When Kobe Bryant was found to be cheating on his wife, his wife decided to stay with him instead of doing what any normal woman would do – take half of his money and run. This didn’t come until after he bought her a very expensive diamond ring.
So if manslaughter, the killing of dogs and even adultery can happen with no remorse, then do these athletes even heave hearts? I would say no.
Although there are a lot of negative stories in the sports world, there are some athletes that do act like the role models they are portraying. But the bad far exceeds the good in today’s sports world.
