He Did What?

At 0-17, the Philadelphia 76ers are in a bad way, and it’s going to get worse if they can’t get a handle on 19-year old rookie center Jahlil Okafor.  After a loss earlier in the week in Boston, Okafor went to a nightclub, which, for professional athletes, is a lot like going to a strip club; only bad things happen at those places.  Sure enough, around 2 AM Okafor got into a fight with hecklers.

“I’m ashamed with what I did and that’s not who I am,” Okafor told reporters after the incident.  “Everybody that’s reached out to me, that’s in my circle, they know that’s not who I am.”  But now comes news of another nightclub incident, last month in Philadelphia.  More heckling, with someone allegedly pulling a gun on Okafor.  If Okafor isn’t that person, then who is he?

Basically, he’s a kid, and kids do dumb things.  As an 18-year old in the minors, Bryce Harper blew a kiss to the opposing pitcher after he hit a home run.  That’s on-the-field dumb, for which there are remedies.  But the stuff that happens off the field can lead to gunfire or, in the case of Johnny Football, whatever an excess of alcohol can fuel. Mr. Football, aka 22-year old Browns’ quarterback Johnny Manziel, has already been to rehab this year, which makes this week’s video of him partying rather sad; his lying about it is more pathetic than anything.  Nobody forced Cleveland to draft Manziel, and apparently nobody in the Browns’ front office did the necessary due diligence.

Long story short—tons of sudden money can corrupt a person, a young person most of all.  Families of said young athletes need to take heed no less than the teams that employ said athletes.