Why are professional athletes always in trouble with the law?

[Mike_Yates]

Are are professional athletes (particularly in football and basketball) CONSTANTLY in trouble with the law and getting arrested for crimes relating to drugs, unregistered firearms, sex, and violence?

Every time I read sports news I hear about "X" player was arrested for "X" crime.

 

[JudasIscariot]

Money, fame and power.

Most athletes are young when they hit the big time.To much too soon can do strange things to the mind.

 

[CandiCame]

And the pressure. Any career where literally everything hinges on your body means you're going to be anorexic, worked to death, and ready to fucking cut loose in the few spare hours you have. It's like that even in high school sports. Sports are waaaay to overvalued. People purposely failing to get an extra year on the team and shit... No food after a certain time; reading the percentages of protein vs fat on every single thing you put in your body; weird ass rules about the timing- drink this shake EXACTLY 22 minutes before a workout so the powder has time to metabolize- shit is CRAZY. So when you have a manager or trainer telling you to the calorie exactly what you can put in your body- yeah, you're gonna want SOMETHING, like a drug habit, that you feel in control of.

 

[ukstockinglvr]

Should that not be, how come professional athletes get let off a lot lighter than the rest of us when committing a crime.

 

[CandiCame]

Should that not be, how come professional athletes get let off a lot lighter than the rest of us when committing a crime.

Well we know the answer to that. Rich people go to rehab, poor people go to jail.

What's weird to me is that nobody cares if you beat the shit out of a chick if you can run really, really fast across a football field. As if there aren't schools full of guys who can run just as fast for half the salary. The drug thing is to be expected; the wife beating thing and the rape charges and whatnot... notsomuch.

 

[duranman]

Well it's easy for most of us to let off steam after working (and we're all sex maniacs on here so need to!) but not so easy for those guys. Money doesn't necessarily buy freedom does it?...

 

[ZiggyTheHutt]

Just putting this out there-

Compare the rate professional athletes get in trouble, with the general population of the united states.

Like plane crashes, we seem to make every single plane crash immortal, and we forget you're far, far more likely to die driving a car.

Crime rate in the general population is massively much higher than among professional athletes. But you don't hear about that, because we, the general poplation of ordinary assholes, aren't famous.

Why are professional athletes always in trouble with the law? 99% of them aren't. Meanwhile, in every city, the crime rate is much higher. That's what poverty does.

 

[ZiggyTheHutt]

Better question: Why are people who are NOT professional athletes always in trouble with the law? Because they don't have million dollar contracts and holding down three jobs is harder than stealing.

 

[Mike_Yates]

Money, fame and power.

Most athletes are young when they hit the big time.To much too soon can do strange things to the mind.

Two other people have told me this when I asked them the same question.

 

[Que]

Just putting this out there-

Compare the rate professional athletes get in trouble, with the general population of the united states.

Like plane crashes, we seem to make every single plane crash immortal, and we forget you're far, far more likely to die driving a car.

Crime rate in the general population is massively much higher than among professional athletes. But you don't hear about that, because we, the general poplation of ordinary assholes, aren't famous.

Why are professional athletes always in trouble with the law? 99% of them aren't. Meanwhile, in every city, the crime rate is much higher. That's what poverty does.

Not even close to true.

Might be close to true in the neighborhoods that spawned them.

 

[SgtSpiderMan]

Are are professional athletes (particularly in football and basketball) CONSTANTLY in trouble with the law and getting arrested for crimes relating to drugs, unregistered firearms, sex, and violence?

Every time I read sports news I hear about "X" player was arrested for "X" crime.

If it was happening that often it wouldn't be news.

 

[rippitydoo]

Main reason: It just makes sense people who are the best at their job once made the most money for it. (My own experience with judges & lawyers, while I've never been arrested or even charged, tells me this is no longer the case.)

Pro athletes figured if they got in trouble with the law, they could afford the best lawyers easier than most average people. Like your average scientist, they decide(d) to test that theory.

 

[~Haze~]

I bet it would happen with any sample of young people who suddenly come into very, very large sums money.

You can pick any demographic and have similar results. Take 500 average people, people who are not used to having a lot of money (but they have anticipated it for a long time) and give them a few million dollars just before you send them back home and see what happens. Many will get involved... some very irresponsibly... In an unhealthy lifestyle.

I would bet you could select the 500 best soldiers in the United States and pay them a few million dollars a year, you would start reading stories about soldiers who can't stay out of trouble.

 

[LadyFunkenstein]

I bet it would happen with any sample of young people who suddenly come into very, very large sums money.

You can pick any demographic and have similar results. Take 500 average people, people who are not used to having a lot of money (but they have anticipated it for a long time) and give them a few million dollars just before you send them back home and see what happens. Many will get involved... some very irresponsibly... In an unhealthy lifestyle.

I would bet you could select the 500 best soldiers in the United States and pay them a few million dollars a year, you would start reading stories about soldiers who can't stay out of trouble.

Indeed, we can clearly see this in the world of music and acting. The ones who get rich while young and quickly end up in all sorts of trouble.

 

[rippitydoo]

Indeed, we can clearly see this in the world of music and acting. The ones who get rich while young and quickly end up in all sorts of trouble.

You may see it, but that may be because you are looking for it (in this instance). Start with Seth Green (for one), but thinking quickly, I can't count the number of times over the past year I've heard talk-show hosts ask an actor/actress/musician something alone the lines of, "You were successful very young; Why didn't you have the problems we've seen happen to so many others?"

(Note, of course, you may hear this question less-often as the people they ask it to potentially become the new normal/majority.)