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BY RON BARR

I’m often confounded as to why athletes do things that get them into trouble.  As a longtime observer of human nature I understand generally why people do what they do.  In the case of male athletes, they get into trouble because they’re either stupid, ignorant, arrogant or all three.

You can also count on their egos coming into play.  I can’t ever recall hearing about a female athlete being accused or arrested for rape, sexual assault, carrying a gun, beating up their significant other or committing robbery.  Male athletes have exclusivity on the category.

While I can’t accept it, I can understand male college athletes doing the above-mentioned things.  They’re still evolving emotionally, mentally and socially.  Maybe they didn’t have a good upbringing and solid values.  Maybe they didn’t have a good male role model to show them the way.  Maybe they don’t know how to make the right choices.  Add to that that young athletes have been adored and told they can do no wrong and you have a kid that’s probably going to do something stupid before they hopefully mature and start doing the right things.

What I can’t accept or understand is an adult male athlete doing the above-mentioned things, especially when they’re highly visible and they risk losing their million dollar incomes.  Case in point Ben Roethlisberger.  Here is a two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback, who is the face of the franchise making millions of dollars, and he puts himself in a situation again to be accused of sexual assault.  It brings to mind the saying, “Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.”  This is the second time a woman has accused Roethlisberger of sexual misconduct.  It doesn’t matter what the details are of the accusations, what’s disturbing is Roethlisberger hasn’t learned not to put himself into situations that can get him accused.  Touch a hot stove once, I’d think you’d be smart enough not to touch it again.  And, if he’s guilty as accused, then somebody better get ahold of him quickly and get him some help.

Athletes, particularly young ones, often feel they’re bullet proof.  And, often they are. Roethlisberger has been so far after cheating death in a motorcycle accident and escaping only somewhat tarnished by his first sexual misconduct accusation.  But, a troublesome pattern is developing.  A pattern of an athlete who “partys hardy” and puts himself in uncompromising situations in which either he makes a bad mistake or others take advantage of him in that uncompromising situation.  Either way, Roethlisberger is always going to be the loser. 

Roethlisberger needs to wakeup and look no further than Tiger Woods to see what lies ahead for him if he continues to make bad decisions.  The problem all troubled athletes have is their lack of understanding of accountability.  At some point the athlete has to come to understand they can’t rely on the copout of “I didn’t know.”  It may work when you’re young and when you go to court on your first misdeed, but in the eyes of the public, the media and the law that excuse gets old quick. Roethlisberger needs to learn what Woods has come to understand on his road to redemption, “I did this to myself.”

I’m Ron Barr.

Ron Barr is an Emmy award winning writer and the host of the nationally and internationally syndicated sports talk show, Sports Byline USA.