ATHLETES HAVEN'T CHANGED, BUT TIMES HAVE

Almost daily, we're told of athletes in trouble. How long before Fox and
ESPN get cute, collaborating on a Cops and Jocks series?

Have we reached a penal plateau so offensive as to suggest that a parole
officer be added to coaching staffs? Percentages say a comparative few who
bruise laws, but the bad boys do stick out like cheekbone warts on a
fashion model.

Pros and collegians.

Hurricane charged with abuse. Buccaneer in custody. Gator booked after
nightclub melee. 'Nole suspected of shoplifting. Jaguar tests positive for
drugs. Bull delinquent on child support.

Constantly, the odious headlines.

When it's a college guy, you will hear chuckles from boosters of rival
schools. But, odds are, for them it will soon hit home. Their players
getting Mirandized. Even brainiac studs at the Air Force Academy have
become defendants.

Raise your hand if you agree being a parent is one of life's most demanding
jobs. Coaches can have similar challenges. They're supposed to look after
players, making them aware of lurking travails. Noting the looming
consequences.

Bad stuff keeps happening.

It is disgusting, but, I wonder, are problems so magnified by modern (and
appropriate) media exposure that we tend to diminish wrongdoings from "the
good old days?" Coverups were once the rule. Many reporters chose, for
generations, to look the other way.

Forty years ago, I heard of guns being packed by ballplayers on one of
Florida's major campuses. Linebackers and point guards would do nasty
things to other students, many of them women, with little or no concern
about getting into trouble.

See no evil, print no evil ...

An old New York baseball writer told me of riding a train with the '27
Yankees. Four reps of Manhattan newspapers were playing cards. A door to
the club car flew open. Babe Ruth came bolting through. "Hi, boys," the
partying slugger bellowed, hurrying onward.

Seconds later, a woman with a butcher knife came along; in obvious spirited
pursuit of the homer king. As she went steaming out of view, journalists
shrugged and dealt on. Nobody taking a note. None considered publicizing
the incident.

Different times ... different exposure.

It's good when 21st century jocks must deal with situations more by the
book. They are aware of sharper policing eyes, even if a stud is running a
quart or two low on self control.

Coaches have been warning athletes since Gipp and Gehrig were pups that the
spotlight on them is intense. Today's goofups are often complicated and
accelerated by illegal drugs.

When the late-night cutups were named Mantle, Hornung or Ruth, there were
concerns involving alcohol, but marijuana, coke and steroids were issues
yet to be born. Stakes have sadly escalated. Money also has become a
whopper factor.

Coaches, some too slow to penalize, can have a calling akin to impossible.
They deal with many blokes who are bloated with arrogance, nauseatingly
short on respect and not so fearful of discipline as jocks of yore.

In addition to roles as recruiters, organizers, architects, academic tutors
and goodwill ambassadors, coaches also can be asked to operate as
investigator, judge or warden.

But that's how it is.

We expect a load of exemplary work from Bowden, Coker, Zook, Leavitt, Del
Rio, Wannstedt, Gruden and their kind, but coaches cannot spend 24/7
alongside their 75-95 young feisties. There are never enough eyes to keep
full tabs.

Honor systems are badly needed.

As long as coaches amply prepare athletes, drilling home the ugly potential
of pitfalls ... and if they react appropriately in dealing with jocks in
trouble . it is work ever bit as worthy of cheers as a game-winning or
trophy-winning touchdown.

How's your favorite coach doing?