Now, my love for Chris Henry began on draft day 2005. I was forming a keeper fantasy football league and I was looking for a sleeper I could take in the very late rounds. I saw video on this kid coming out of the University of West Virginia who would be featured in an offense with the up and coming Carson Palmer throwing to him, and I figured what the hell, this kid may be something. He sure has become something: he has turned into everything that you do not want your kids to become. He is a waste of talent because no matter how bright his playing future may look the kid keeps going back to his stupid ways. He has been arrested 4 times in the last year, and was there for at least one other Bengal getting arrested (I know, he didn't get in trouble that time, but the point is he went looking for trouble and got lucky he didn't find it) Let's face it: He makes Tank Johnson look like Pope Benedict.
He was suspended two games this year (two weeks where I could have used him also), and now he is facing more suspension time. Not only that, but now he gets jail time. In his fourth court case, he was sentenced by a Kentucky judge for allowing minors to drink in his hotel room. "You embarrassed yourself," Kenton County District Judge Greg Grothaus told Henry. "You embarrassed a lot of people, teammates, friends and family, the city, the fans and myself." I'm sure Henry doesn't give a damn what some judge says. After all, he's Chris Henry, and he'll do whatever he damn well pleases. Prosecutor Ken Easterling said "Looking at his history and the amount of times he's gone before other courts and not gotten jail time, the reason we sought jail time was to send a very clear message to him that this is going to be the response every time you get in trouble in our community. So I hope, as the judge indicated, that he gets the message." Do any of you really think that a measly two day jail sentence will make him stop his childish ways? Did any of you chuckle like I did when Bengals Head Coach Marvin Lewis promised tougher penalties after the season? I know I did. These guys don't care what Marvin Lewis has to say. It's obvious by their actions. It's not like they say "OK, you caught me. I won't do it again." No, they keep giving the middle finger to the law, the league, their teammates and coaches, and most of all their fans. Like I said, Marvin Lewis promised stiffer penalties after the season. In my world, thats spineless. Thats like having someone repeatedly spit in your face, then after they leave and shut the door behind them you whisper "you better not do that again "! And he is the one, besides the players themselves, who gets all the blame. He knew what he was getting when he drafted these players. Most of them had a tattered past. "It's good that this case involving Chris has been resolved," Lewis said "Now Chris must continue to strive to mature and grow both as a player and as a person." Now?!?!? Now?!?!? Now, after his fourth crime in 12 months he must con...con..continue?!?!? Marvin, please don't tell me you are that naive. Chris has not even begun to mature. Rush Limbaugh has caught a lot of flak for saying the NFL is like the Bloods and the Cripts without weapons. Although I do not believe that this is an accurate statement because it puts the whole league in the same category of the thug life, I do feel if an outsider looked at the Bengals that they would whole hartedly agree with this statement. (NOTE: I know the reason he is getting so much flak for that statement is because people find it racist. I don't think he was looking at race (although who knows with him), I think he was looking at the character of many of the league's players and their legal issues. And no, I am not a Limbaugh fan, nor do I hate him. I'm just an impartial observer and I am not trying to defend what he has said.)
I just don't get it: these athletes are paid millions of dollars to play a game. Thats what it is, a game that we loved to play and would still love to play if our bodies let us. A game that our parents paid other people for us to have a right to play. I understand a lot of these players come from backgrounds where they are surrounded by trouble, where trouble is a way of life. But I hate when people feel sorry for them and use that as an excuse. All they have to do is distance themselves from that trouble, I mean, they have the money to do it. I'm not one for abandoning your friends, anyone who knows me knows that I will do anything for them, but sometimes you have to look out for yourself. And if your friends are trying to bring you down with their actions, then are they really your friends, or are they just acquaintances who are along for the glory ride of your success? I think this is a question that every pro athlete should ask themselves before they begin their careers.
Get used to wearing orange,
there's a lot of orange clothes
in your future!
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