So, you’d think athletes would watch when other athletes are in the news… and especially for negative things. But, apparently not as yet again, we have another story of an athlete making bad choices.

Gilbert Arenas of the Washington Wizards brought like four, unloaded guns to the locker room and was actually playing with them. What? This guy is a crack up, but in a very bad way because he’s acting as if he’s totally clueless. Now, for the record, I’m not a fan of Arenas… I believe he doesn’t take his role on the team or his talent seriously and it’s a shame because so many would love to trade places with him.

Now, its a felony situation that he has now pleaded guilty for and he’s been indefinitely suspended from the NBA… By the way, even after the incident was in the news, this guy talks smack about the boss of the NBA, David Stern, saying that the guy was mean (among other things). Arenas will be sentenced on March 26th and why… because he brought guns to work, played around with them, didn’t take the situation seriously, and made insensitive gestures before a game depicting shooting actions. Why? That’s all I ask… Why?

Aside: I’m not at all a fan of Tiger Woods. I acknowledge what he’s done for a game and how he’s broaden a community’s view, but personally, not a fan… That’s my opinion, right?

Point: Should the way people feel about a professional athlete or their actions off the field (court, ice, whatever) determine his or her on-the-field results or status?

Okay, so a new NBA season is underway! Yay, right? Well sorta… for me at least. I mean, I love the game and the year’s trade acquisitions have been crazy to say the least (Uh, Ron Artest to the Lakers? Sick!). Okay, I’m back… The thing that has ruffled a part of my feathery side is the feeling that, yep, here we go again… you know, life.

Didn’t think that was going to be the spin, huh? I was just driving and I thought of the new season and I was just like ‘blah’… Honestly. How do you cope with that day-after-day, year-after-year sorta feeling that creeps up and shows its head every once and a while? You know, time and tenure are wonderful things and so I just wonder how one can press through the I-gotta-get-out-of-here itchies…

I’m sure even these paid (uh, really paid) NBA players feel this way, too, here and there. We’re all human and it has to spring upon you every now and then. Even with the money and the resources and the thrills, these athletic specimens even ask what else is there.

I’m sure I’m bumming around because my favorite season is gone, yet again, and while there’s this wonderment over the new NBA season, but I’m already in the playoffs (spring/summer)… Can we say Lakers and Celtics, with the Lakers taking it all?!? That’s an entirely different story…

Literally. What’s left in the heads of those athletes who suffer concussions… yes, some have endured more than one.

I guess, moreover, my question is why would an athlete return to a sport when a concussion is suffered? I mean, the symptoms are real and the long-term consequences are real? A good number of concussions have occurred of late and one by one the athletes are returning to the game.  A sports loving friend of mine says having a concussion now days is as common as getting a headache. Wow.

To me, it’s never that time. One shaky skull and I’m done. I just don’t get it…

I just want to encapsulate this story with great tragic imagery, as it is just that…

A 2-year prison sentence has started for violating New York’s strict guns laws. Why?

Now a 3-year-old boy is without his father and a wife is left alone as she prepares for the birth of another child. Why?

The one-time Super Bowl champ is without a team and can only hope that after his jail stint a team will pick him up. Why?

His father stands in the court room and tells Plaxico to be strong. Why?

This all stems from Plaxico accidentally shooting himself in the thigh at a Manhattan nightclub… The gun wasn’t licensed in New York. Why?

Bad decision making… Period.

Here’s the thing, football season is here and there are a few traditions (a.k.a. fun times) that occur which makes the season a memorable one. One that comes to mind is the ritual of donning your team’s jersey and gathering at the local pub or sports’ bar to eat, drink, and cheer your favorite team on. It’s an exciting environment and is one of those things you just can’t explain… you have to do it (if only once).

This actually leads me to my point (I’m cracking up already!). I did it once and that was enough. The end.

It’s really not the end, but that’s how I feel. I mean, being social is one thing (which I’m not… I try! I really do try! It’s just overrated, ugh!), but purposely leaving the comforts of my own home to be around potentially inebriated and rowdy strangers, where the chances of an argument/fight breaking out is like 97 percent doesn’t appeal to me. Really. I think of the sticky floors, the finger-flirting peanuts on the wet bar top, and the soiled bathroom that I try to avoid at all cost and I am literally drained by it all. Eek!

The flip side is sitting on my way comfy couch (with Hubby), in a climate-controlled atmosphere with all the trimmings (and the occasional nap during the game), and no need for shoes (I don’t know why that’s important.). Uh, I choose the latter.

So, please… enlighten me. Why, why (why!) do you continue to venture to these places?

This isn’t a professional sports’ story, but one of relevance none the less… What do you make of this?

High school, death, a coach possibly going to jail…

As I understand it, a 15-year-old lineman, Maxwell Gilpin, collapsed on a high school practice football field from a heat stroke and later died. Gilpin’s body temperature reached 107 degrees. David Stinson, the Pleasure Ridge Park coach with a reckless homicide charge, may be on his way to jail for alleged not giving students water on this day where temperatures reached 94 degrees. If convicted, the coach could face 5 years behind bars.

I wish I could get all the facts because there has been so much lost already. I know of many young people who find themselves in back-breaking practices and only want to appease their coaches to ensure playing time and personal growth. Well, then you ask a kid how they’re feeling and they say they’re fine. There are so many questions… Where were the other coaches? Is this normal? Where were the parents? A boy’s life is gone and for what (This isn’t a sarcastic or rhetorical question.)? It definitely stirs questions and emotions. What is the future impact?

No, not that Michael…

NFL’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, reinstated former quarterback, Michael Vick, back into the NFL… with conditions. This means Vick is free to play if he is picked up by a particular team. There are also stipulations that Vick would have to adhere to in regards to when he can start playing. Vick hasn’t responded to this recent decision, but man, it seems like everybody has.

I mean the comments have varied from being glad that he’s being allowed to play again to only those who unknowingly do wrong should be allowed to get a second chance. I don’t know what to think because we are all flawed and deserve grace, but where is the balance, you know?

Where exactly do you stand?…

When I heard the former NFL quarterback, Steve McNair, was killed over the weekend in Nashville I was shocked. But, then when I heard he was found near his dead girlfriend’s body, shocked didn’t even encompass it any longer.

Why… That’s all I could ask myself. It is such a waste. McNair was married with four boys. But then he was named on a Cadillac truck along with his girlfriend. Why?… (You see why I ask this, huh?)…

There are many details and so much to still be exposed, but my focus is on the children. They will be forever associated with the scandal of their father. How can this situation be explained to the children and who will be the brave person to explain it to them? The other sad part to this is that McNair’s on-the-field excellence is going to pale once compared to this turn of events.

Children never get a choice in these matters. They’re just collateral damage. My thoughts are definitely with the family and I hope any emotional scars the children incur will be healed and their lives restored.