I remember when sports were a total escape from the world. Where the only thing that mattered was theperformance during the game. An athletes transgressions away from the game were just that, a transgression away from the game, out of sight and out of peoples minds.

The only time I recall hearing about an athletes activities away from the field was when they were doing a toy drive, visiting kids in the hospital or signing autographs at a new store opening. This was the life of an athlete in my eyes, seen but unheard.

As far as I knew the professional athlete was a perfect citizen blessed with both talent and social grace.As I grew older I began to read about incidents of infidelity, drugs and crimes that appeared to have only occurred after the player had left professional sports.

I understood this as the athlete being unable to handle being out of the limelight and found themselves unable to adjust to civilian life. Yet as time evolved, even this belief quickly vanished as my comprehension of the truth exposed the lies behind the curtain in many was thanks to social media.

I began seeing college athletes kicked out of school for different actions, wasting what many have always labeled as the golden opportunity! In my mind I had formulated if you can make it out of college and into the pro ranks, you would have filtered out those who did not have the fortitude to adaptto the social demands of a professional.

Yet now I recognize that none of this passes the litmus test of reality. I have come to understand that if you mess with the money, you mess with the machine that is professional sports.

I began to see the facade that was built and constructed to establish and maintain a cloak of perfectionism. I myself had even accepted this portrayal as I so loved professional sports, and my “onemonkey don’t stop the show” idealism.

We tend to hold athletes to a higher standard, or do we? At least we want to say we do and or when it becomes favorable to do so.

We want our young people in sports to achieve higher to be more than they are at the moment with the skills and abilities that they have shown. But is the goal for them to be better or to be successful?

In my life I have learned that these two things are not always synonymous. Most recently I have seen a man punished for doing nothing legally or ethically wrong.

Yet be penalized more harshly than someone who may have committed a crime or offense that was legally and or ethically unjust. The actions of this person has spoken volumes in reference to what they have done off the field opposed to their production and actions upon it.

I had to wonder if this was my child, would I be upset with their oppositions as a professional or their conquest away from the playing field? It seems we all can find a way to agree that when a person achieves as an athlete they should be celebrated and most often times jeered when they don’t.

I am not sure we look to hold that same athlete as accountable when they fail society off the field or celebrate their societal achievements as we would them making the winning shot in the finals!