Drug users’ confessions are ignored
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One would think if you tell the police — and the world — you do drugs, then you would be in handcuffs a few hours later. But with the recent announcement of several professional ball players saying they use of have used marijuana, so far I haven’t heard of any arrests.
You might wonder what brought this up. First off, it was Ricky Williams and his announcement of retiring from the NFL so he could spend more time taking pictures, traveling and, oh yeah, smoking marijuana.
Then there’s the article I saw last week about former Carolina Panthers and Indianapolis Colts defensive end Shawn King.
King told of his stint in the NFL and how he would smoke before the games in order to better prepare his mind.
“I’m not gonna say it helped me, but it definitely didn’t hurt me,” said King. “You’re just thinking about football or what you’re going to do after the game, or whatever. I had some of my best games when I smoked pot beforehand.”
Now, if anyone in this newsroom sat down and wrote a column and stated he or she did their best work after lighting one up, the police department would be down here before we could clean our desks out from being fired.
Now I’m not saying anyone here does drugs, I’m just saying how can these athletes get away with publicly admitting to doing something totally illegal and not be arrested.
Yes, the NFL does have a drug policy, just like most places of employment. But according to a few players it’s very simple to get around it.
King went on to say he like smoking so much that he filled Gatorade bottles full of clean urine during his rookie season. He saved upped 18 months worth of urine and took a bottle of it everywhere he went.
King tested positive during his rookie training camp in 1995. The positive results placed him in the league’s intervention program, which subjected him to more frequent testing.
When Ricky Williams retired, he claimed he used detoxifying agents to dilute his urine and beat the test.
The point is, if you’re telling everybody what you did (or are currently doing) shouldn’t somebody get in trouble?
• Speaking of trouble, it seems one pitcher might be in for more than he bargained for. Monday night during the Texas Rangers and Oakland A’s game at Oakland, Texas pitcher Frank Francisco threw a chair into the stands, hitting two spectators in the head.
It all started when Texas relief pitcher Doug Brocail got into a shouting match with a male fan. The two men exchanged insults and the pitcher had to be restrained by his teammates and bullpen coach. Then things turned ugly when Francisco threw the chair, breaking a spectator’s nose. The game was held up for 19 minutes, while the umpires and managers talked about suspending the game and forfeiting it.
It all boils down to fans think they know more about what’s going on than anyone else. If this is the case, why aren’t these people playing or coaching? The answer’s simple: Because they don’t know anything except how to complain and spout off at the mouth.