Double Standards

Are professional athletes held to the same standard as the rest of the public? According to Public Relations specialists, celebrities, also professional athletes are not only held to the same standard but they are held to a higher standard because they are under the magnifying glass 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The public is always watching and scrutinizing every action famous people in the limelight receives. But does that statement ring truth in our ears?

            Looking back it, there are plenty of examples of players who, because of their famous profile, were not held to as strict punishment as would “ordinary” people. Ray Lewis and his past is a perfect example of this. He, along with his buddies was accused of stabbing and killing Richard Lollar and his friend Jacinth Baker. Lewis and his friends were seen entering a sporting goods store the day before. Is that where they purchased the knives that were reportedly uses as the killing weapons?

            What about the witnesses that reported seeing Lewis’s limousine pull over and drop off bloody clothes, or that Ray Lewis white suit at the party was never seen again?

            Why did the limousine driver change his story from hearing Lewis tell everyone to keep their mouths shut, to nothing ever happened?

            Why is it then that the charge of murder on Lewis was simply dropped to a misdemeanor obstruction of justice? Why is it that there were two boys killed that night by stab wounds in a public area nearly ten years ago and a case closed, without having found the actual murderers? Am I claiming that Ray killed these two boys, no. But there is enough off evidence that there should be a real investigation to the extent that someone is identified as the perpetrator.

            Ray Lewis is a story a dime a dozen out there of high profile athletes or celebrities who were let off easily because of their perceived status among the nation. My question to the public is why we continue to praise these men when their individual character is in such question as to not know whether said person killed, molested or any such offense to our fellow American neighbor. Why do we not hold these revered individuals to the same standards we would our friends or neighbors?