I have to agree with Stude. There are the exceptions to every rule, such as Brett, Boomer, Collinsworth, Munoz (yes, the last three are former Bengals. Hey, I'm from Cincy. *G*) etc.
But they are few and far between. Look at all the trouble the Bengals had this past season and the season before. I think it was 9 or 10 arrests the previous season for drunken driving, drug possession, assault...
We take some of these kids out of desperate situations and pile them with money. We don't give them any understanding on just what to DO with all that money. They didn't get it at home, at school...
And speaking of schools...wouldn't it be a wonderful thing indeed if we treated our teachers like we treat our professional sports players? If we gave them the money they deserve. I mean, after all, if it weren't for many of these teachers getting these kids started in these sports, we wouldn't HAVE these professional sports teams in the first place.
We need to give our kids better role models...and I, for one, think that our teachers, the men and women who get up everyday and work 10, 12, 14 hours a day(!!!) often using their own money to make sure the kids in their classrooms have the basic needs...tissues, pencils, paper, sometimes even food. And they do it year after year with pretty much no help from parents, the government...anyone.
Whew...there I was on the soapbox. Stude, you can have it back.
Kae
(ps, the above is simply MHO. Please take it as such)