Consequences

Every once in a while, there comes a story that really gets under my skin.

Last week I came across one of these news items that really rubbed me the wrong way.

Two boys in Kenton, Ohio, ages 16 and 17, stole a decoy deer and placed it on a country road and watched and laughed as motorists swerved to avoid hitting it.

It wasn’t so funny for two other teenagers who were driving down that road when they hit the deer, lost control, and crashed into a ditch causing serious injuries. One of the teens suffered brain damage as a result of this "prank."

Both of the boys who put the deer on the road were football players on the local high school team – a team that had won state championships in recent years and drew 4,000 fans to their games in a town with a population of just 8,000.

Football, obviously, is a big deal in Kenton, Ohio. Perhaps even more of a big deal than it is here in Karnes County.

Judge Gary McKinley ruled that the boys could complete their upcoming football season before they served 60-day sentences at the juvenile detention center.

"I shouldn’t be doing this, but I’m going to," the judge said when he announced his decision. "I see positive things about participating in football."

What?

What on Earth was he thinking?

I can’t understand the judge’s reasoning on this.

I can understand wanting the hometown team to win.

I can understand how that’s especially important in some "big football towns."

But is winning more important than anything?

Isn’t the whole point of sports about building character and learning the value of teamwork and hard work? Isn’t about making young people better people?

I would have thought that a criminal conviction would automatically get a young player kicked off the team, but apparently, that’s not the way it works anymore.

There was a really good movie I saw a while back called Coach Carter.

The movie was based on a true story.

It was about a successful sporting goods storeowner who accepted the job of basketball coach for his old high school in a poor area, where he was once a champion athlete.

Trying to improve the poor attitudes of his players as well as their dismal play performance, the coach imposed a strict regime complete with written contracts that include stipulations for respectful behavior, a dress code and good grades as requisites to being allowed to participate.

When the players didn’t uphold their end of their contracts, the coach had to hold them accountable and canceled several games.

In the end, the young men learned a valuable lesson about consequences and it changed them for the better.

The judge who showed special treatment for the two young pranksters because of their status on the football team made a terrible mistake. It sends a tremendously powerful message to the community: If you have enough talent, in this town, you can get away with just about anything.

This is just… so wrong.

These two football players should have been removed from the team, regardless of what the judge ruled. Imagine if it were your child who suffered brain damage as a result of this "prank." Imagine having to watch the perpetrators of this stunt cheered on by roaring fans as they run on the field throughout the local football season.

There have got to be consequences for this kind of behavior and justice has got to be blind – the fact that they were star football players should not have even been a factor considered by this judge.

And that’s why this story made me so mad even though it happened way up in Ohio.

Sadly, this seems to be happening more and more these days.

When it comes to justice in recent time, it seems that far too often what seems to matter the most is "who you are," instead of "what you did."