Young athletes make mistakes like the rest of us

It’s that time of year when young athletes are preparing for the next stage in their sports careers.

High school athletes who are fortunate enough to get to play at the college level will sign — or have already signed — their letters of intent to universities that have recruited them.

The NFL finished its 2015 draft and 256 college football players from across the country will get an opportunity to play pro football this season. There are also college athletes who played basketball, baseball or other sports hoping to continue their careers after they graduate.

With every draft season there seems to be a crop of young athletes who make the news because they made poor choices. One example is Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston.

Winston, 21, the No. 1 draft pick selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was not only known for his abilities on the field, but also for making headlines for incidents of shoplifting, making vulgar comments while standing atop a table in Florida State University’s Student Union and a sexual assault allegation, of which he was later cleared.

Another example is former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, 27, who allegedly fled the scene of a hit-and-run accident after he crashed his car in a collision that involved two other vehicles and left a pregnant woman injured. The UFC punished Jones by stripping him of his title and suspending him indefinitely. This isn’t Jones’ first run-in with the law. In 2012, Jones was arrested for driving under the influence after crashing his car into a pole.

These choices athletes make are not much different than the average person. However, society holds athletes to a different standard and when they do something wrong the media shines a big light on it.

Money can play a factor. Athletes are being given six- or seven-figure contracts but they don’t know how to handle their money responsibly. Some will flaunt their wealth. If they run into a legal problem, they’ll throw a large sum of cash at it — as do others with money.

A lack of a mentor or a strong role model can be another factor in athletes making poor choices.

But what is it about athletes and their personal lives that generates so much talk and discussion? A lot of it has to do with the media. Sports gets the majority of news coverage around the world.

Over the years there have been athletes who have been known for drinking, drugs or some other behaviors that seem outlandish. Babe Ruth liked to drink and womanize but folks didn’t see it as much of a big deal as we do now. There also wasn’t the immediacy of the news or hundreds of media outlets like we have today. If fans saw Ruth at a bar, they didn’t have digital devices to capture pictures or video of the “Great Bambino” downing a pitcher of beer. Now athletes like Floyd Mayweather post something on social media and every sports website will run a story with their own spin on it without taking the time to analyze the whole situation. People don’t understand that what they are reading or seeing is selective.

While we do see the media cover the positive things that some sports celebrities do for their communities, it is not hyped. LeBron James supports organizations like the Boys and Girls Club of America and Children’s Defense Fund — as well as his own LeBron James Family Foundation — yet many websites would rather focus on his relationship with Cavaliers teammate Kevin Love.

As young athletes get ready to take the next step, we at the Cheney Free Press hope they seek some strong mentoring and keep their nose clean. For those with money, we hope they do something good with it and give back to their communities.

We would also like to see media balance their coverage of the bad stuff with some of the good things that athletes do. We understand the bad stuff is out there and people are more inclined to read about it. There’s that old journalism saying, “If it bleeds, it leads.” However, the bad stuff doesn’t make the good stuff any less important.