Isn’t It Past Time To Quit Tolerating Sports Criminals?

You don’t care.

You, the sports fan, don’t care that Mo Vaughn is charged with drunk driving while on his way home from a strip club.

You don’t care that David Meggett was arrested in Toronto when an alleged menage a trois turned tres mal.

You don’t care, so stop pretending you do.

Don’t act outraged that Wilfredo Cordero, or Warren Moon, or Jose Canseco beat their wives.

Because you don’t really care.

Don’t be indignant that Latrell Sprewell hit his coach, or that Christian Peter hit his girlfriend.

You don’t care.

You don’t care that so many ridiculously overpaid athletes behave boorishly, irresponsibly, sometimes criminally.

You don’t care that so many big-time athletes have huge egos, that they’re self-centered, narcissistic no-minds who think the world revolves around them.

If you did, you’d do something about it.

Instead, what you’ve done is make guys like Dennis Rodman multi-millionaires.

If you cared, you’d insist that college athletes be legitimate students.

If you cared, you wouldn’t buy outrageously expensive tickets to meaningless games played by players who care more about cashing big checks than winning big games.

If you cared, you wouldn’t buy overpriced sneakers from companies who have them manufactured overseas for peanuts, then pour big money into AAU programs that develop lots of players, but absolutely no value system.

You could do that, if you cared.

But you don’t care.

All you care about is whether your team wins or loses.

Just last week, Notre Dame basketball star Pat Garrity, who has a 3.7 grade-point average in biochemistry, talked about the attitude of many of the players he competes against.

“The way things are these days, where, in the summer, kids play on teams sponsored by shoe companies and have everything given to them, a lot of guys come into college thinking people owe them,” Garrity said.

“They think that people are going to look after them, take care of them, because they’re someone special.

“It’s a dangerous thing when higher education … starts making compromises.

“It sends the message to these guys that they don’t have to work for themselves; that people will get them things, do things for them. It creates laziness.”

How many people will pay attention to what Garrity says?

Not you, the sports fan. Because you don’t care.

College presidents could do something about it. But they care more about the money that big-time sports programs bring in than they do about the academic credibility of their institution.

Too many athletes have an overblown sense of entitlement, and no idea about personal responsibility.

Too many athletes don’t care about rules, feeling they don’t apply to them. That’s because, too often, they don’t.

Athletes are treated differently. They’re told they’re special.

They’re told they don’t have to do their schoolwork. That they don’t have to take the classes everyone else is taking. That, in some cases, someone will take that test for them.

Having a problem with school, son? Not a problem, if you can play.

Having difficulty taking this class? Not to worry, if you can take the rock to the rack.

Sports fans don’t care that so many college athletes don’t belong in college at all.

They only care about going to bowl games, not whether the athlete is going to class. They care about whether the player can take them to the NCAA Tournament, not whether he’s taking legitimate courses.

Does anybody care about Mike Tyson?

The man is a convicted rapist. He beat his ex-wife, Robin Givens. He bit off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear in a world-championship bout.

Yet just last month Tyson signed a $3.5-million contract to be the “special enforcer” - a bodyguard for the referee - for the featured match of Wrestle Mania XIV between Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Why?

Because WWF promoter Vince McMahon obviously knows people will pay big money to see Tyson.

Sports fans, instead of turning their backs on these jerks, rush to embrace them.

You just don’t care.

And don’t try to tell me that you do.

If you did, you’d do something about it.