In light of the recent happenings with Royce White being arrested for shoplifting and Devron Bostick being suspended for an unspecified rules violations I started thinking about why we continue to see the same issues with some athletes year after year. In particular, male athletes. Who's to blame for this? There seems to be plenty of blame to go around.

The most obvious place to start is with the family. Teaching your kids morals, the difference between right and wrong, and that there will be consequences to ones actions is the basic responsibility of the family. Regardless of whether the makeup of the family is a mom and dad, mom only, or grandmother only, someone in the house has to provide an atmosphere where kids can learn by example. It has been said that one dedicated adult can change the life of a child. However, that adult has to be truly vested in the child to help prepare the child for life and not simply vested in the child's athletic dreams.

We the fans bear some responsibility in this as well. Our expectations are so incredibly high. We want winning teams and we want them now. Most of us are usually willing to take a risk on kids who have proven in the past to have had issues. This would be okay if it was really about giving the kids a second chance, getting them an education, and doing what is best for the kids. But, it's really not about that is it? It's about the thought of what our team could look like if the kid did get his act together. It's about the thought of getting to the NCAA tournament and how exciting that would be. If one of the options to help a student athlete was to only allow him to attend school and volunteer in the community and work on making himself a better person but he would have to sit out a year or two from his sport, would that interest you as a fan or not so much?

Our societies' obsession with athletes is over the top and continues to get worse. I have actually witnessed parents pushing and yelling at their kids to get an autograph from an athlete claiming it's for the kid when the kid has no idea who the athlete is. Many women would sell their soul to the devil to date one of these guys and grown adults are so obsessed with athletes they can't move past the fact that Brett Favre is a Viking. I understand why we put athletes on pedestals to a certain extent. When you see an elite athlete showcasing his skills it is something of beauty. I can sit and watch old Michael Jordan dunks for hours on end because it is simply amazing. Something few people on the planet can do. As long as our society has an insatiable desire for the best teams and athletes at any cost we will continue to witness the same issues.

The overall system of recruiting and the amount of money involved is of course another huge factor. Recruiters going into grade schools promising the world if the athlete stays healthy and can perform is often the start of the ugly cycle that creates the mentality of you can do what ever you want as long as you can perform. Watch "Through the Fire" the (Sebastian Telfair documentary) or "Hoop Dreams" to see how entire families put everything on the line for their kid to make it to the pros.

Lastly, the athlete himself undertakes the responsibility of understanding what they are involved in. Being treated different your entire life, being allowed to make mistakes with out suffering consequences, and having adults worship the ground you walk on doesn't mean you are off the hook for taking responsibility for your life. There are many amazing stories of athletes who have come out of awful situations and have been wonderful productive citizens as well as terrific athletes. I would love to think that these are the headlines we will be reading over the next twenty years, but I am not optimistic that any of it will change because we're focusing on the wrong thing-the athlete not the person.