And yeah…. Favre has always been about favre.

One, Dallas Cpwboys kicker Rafael Septien sticks his dick in the mouth of a 4-year-old girl at a friend’s house.

Two, Leonard Little kills a woman because he can’t stop himself from driving while intoxicated.

We can go on…. Three, Art Schlichter gambles away so much money that he becomes an actual danger to anyone who knows him. Four, Pete Rose bets on games he’s managing…. whether he admits to that extent of his problem or not. Five, Pacman Jones gets involved in so many police actions that his WANTED poster gets carved in stone AND sells out at Wal-Mart. Six, Shawn Kemp (among others, like Larry Bird) has enough illegitimate children that the elementary school picnic is called ‘the family reunion.’ How much further do you want me to go, because I have all night….?

Are you really telling me that Tom Landry should have said to Septien, “Look, muchacho, what you do with your ‘pistole’ is your business. Just git that dad-gum ball through them uprights come Sundee….”….?

Are you really telling me that Dick Vermeil should have told Little, “Leonardo, we’re drafting a fourth-string tight end from Idaho State and we’re giving him the position of Designated Driver on our 53-man squad. He’s gonna follow you wherever you go.”….?

Come on, man…… Some people are just bad apples. I’m no psychologist, penologist, behavioral specialist, or whatever, but it doesn’t take a Ph D to know that some people are dangers not only to themselves but also to their family, friends, and even employers. Maybe we’re not talking physical danger, but if I’m an employer and I have an employee who’s reckless off the job, I have to wonder when my business is going to suffer.

I agree that a speeding ticket or a domestic argument between a man and his wife often gets blown way out of proportion by the media (see Warren Moon, a few years back), because athletes and their sordid tales sell papers and attract viewers, but are we supposed to ignore the stories about a Lawrence Phillips and just wait for the touchdowns on Sunday? That’s valuing our sports entertainment at a dangerous level.

I know most of you on here have heard the old story about Babe Ruth running naked through a train car, and then being followed by a naked woman wielding a knife. One reporter in that train car turned to the rest and said, “Boys, it’s a good thing we didn’t see that, because then we’d have to write about it.” Times certainly have changed, and with a multi-million-dollar deal for playing a kids’ game and a 24-hour news cycle, your actions are going to hit the airwaves a few seconds after they happen. That’s the price of fame, like it or not.

The original post here seemed to exalt the players who bust it and get the job done on the field….. but that’s a player’s job, isn’t it? From nine to five you’re supposed leave every ounce of it on the field. You can celebrate that kind of hustle and hard work, but when a guy displays off-field behavior that goes beyond a certain level of tolerance, are we really supposed to just wave it away and say, “Well…… at least he runs hard in practice.”…….?

Hollywood celebrities are under the same glare, and is that unfair? Years ago when Robert Downey, Jr. was running wild on coke and heroin, he was still a great actor, but would you have hired him for your movie, not knowing what kind of guy was going to turn up at the set every day? I wouldn’t have. Sure, the final performance would be brilliant, but would it be worth what you had to go through to get it? The late Howard Rollins lost all kinds of acting jobs because no matter how terrific he was (and he was terrific) no director could trust him to show up and do his job every day.

Hell, I’m a teacher, and if I ever got caught doing anything remotely illegal, I can be dismissed for cause, no matter how wonderful my students think I am. We even had a teacher (and not a bad one, either) dismissed for putting her profile up on a porn website, even though she never accessed it from a school computer and her profile did not mention that she was a teacher. Was that wrong?

Is it reasonable to think that whatever you do away from the office, it should never impact how you’re viewed by an employer or the people around you, or have I misunderstood what the original post was getting at?

Like Michael Irvin was famous for running routes after practice with undrafted free-agent QB’s just because he felt like he wanted to give them a chance, even puking while doing the route and not stopping.

And (as much as I hate to bring him up again) Bonds is noted for his fitness. Although questions about him being a good teammate still remain.