Up In Smoke

After that disaster of a super Bowl - notice I emphasize a small 's', due to a lack of super-ness - I wrapped up my weekend reading a story that really disappoints and unnerves me.

I didn't hear about it prior until I looked at my BBC Headline drop-down from my toolbar, but Michael Phelps was apparently caught on camera smoking marijuana at a party in South Carolina. Phelps has since apologized to his fans.

He better be apologizing hard to his sponsors as well, but then again, in many ways I'm not surprised.

The post-Olympic buzz, no pun intended, has bitten Phelps more than once now, as he was arrested in 2004 for a DUI, when he was 19.

I could care less, now, how disappointed he is, I am appalled and disappointed at what he has done for his young fans.

But, the fact remains that he has clearly broken the law at least twice, and most definitely many more times.

To me it seems Phelps, like so many other athletes, believe they can continue on their paths of UN-righteousness and never be bothered, or, get caught.

Well, this makes twice for Phelps and if he has one more, he will lose sponsorship and will probably have to answer to someone with more clout than his mother.

I think this young man - 6 months older than me - is a disgrace, at this point and an embarrassment to U.S.A. Swimming and to the country itself.

The golden boy continues to show tarnish and it is really sad he can't leave the nonsense behind when he HAS TO know so many young kids, like the ones I coach, look up to him. It is agravating to anyone who struggles to succeed in anything, when they see a story about the most successful Olympian of all time smoking marijuana and getting arrested for DUI.

I hope he feels bad and I hope someone unseats him in the coming competitions, because it is a disgrace that this athlete continues to display his disinterest in professionalism when he could be so much more, especially to the 7 to 11 year olds I see every night at Hibberd Pool.

"I want to be like Michael Phelps," I've heard many of them say, since his success in Beijing.

I hope for their sake, at this point, they soon don't hold onto that wish.