Unreasonable Advantages

Recently, NFL players Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens and Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings have been charged with crimes. Rice was seen on tape beating his wife, and Peterson reportedly abused or spanked his son. Although these two men have appeared on the news often lately, they are only two of many athletes charged with crimes. Previously, these charged athletes have found a way to sneak out of these cases, using their fame and money to unfairly manipulate the trials.In 2003, a young woman accused Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers of sexual assault. Despite clear evidence that Bryant had sexual interaction with this young woman, the accuser abruptly decided to drop the charges. The reasoning behind the accuser’s decision is questionable; no one knows what Bryant or the court or even the National Basketball Association told or gave to the accuser. One may believe that the young women was simply tired of repetitive and time consuming trials. However, it is more likely that some sort of interaction occurred between Bryant’s side and the accuser. The National Basketball Association could not afford to lose this popular superstar, who is attributed to a significant portion of the NBA’s profit, to such a simple case.On the other hand, the reason that these athletes’ crimes seem severe might be because they are athletes and every little moment of their life is monitored by the media. If a normal man in Minnesota "spanked" his son with the purpose of discipline, the media would give far less coverage to the case. Because Adrian Peterson was a professional athlete, this crime has blown up to the public. The intensity of the coverage, which is perhaps even overzealousness, however, does not excuse the behavior of these athletes.This situation is not only evident in professional sports; it can be seen throughout experiences of college or even high school athletes. For example, LaMichael James, a football running back of the Oregon Ducks, pled guilty of menacing, strangling and assaulting his girlfriend. Despite this horrid deed, James was sentenced to only 10 days in jail. What’s more astonishing is that he spent no time behind bars at all. The only "punishment" James received was a suspension of one game in the regular season. In this situation, the Ducks could not have one of their star players, James, missing for more than one game both for purpose of winning and "ticket-selling."So do athletes have an unfair advantage over normal citizens with the law? Oftentimes, small crimes committed by professionals are blown up for the public to see. This media storm likely wouldn’t happen to a normal citizen. Athletes, however, somehow find a way to get out of punishment.Money seems like the main contributor to the pattern of athletes having unfair advantages in dealing with criminal charges. Professional leagues, such as the NBA and colleges such as Oregon, because of their desire to make money, have slid their players out of criminal cases. The idea that this is even possible in the modern world is ridiculous. Unfortunately, not many fans admit that the athletes they admire have unreasonable advantages in areas that they should not. The first step in fixing this is to recognize the issue. Let us recognize this issue.