Sports fans are impossible to impress 

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Good morals often get overlooked due to pessimistic views

Can we sports fans ever be satisfied?

When an athlete is arrested for misconduct or suspended from a school, we get on our soapbox and demand a more righteous and moral modern athlete.

When an athlete is busted for drug use or has his picture posted on TMZ for their late-night clubbing sessions, we wag our collective fingers in disgust, as if we have never done the same at one point in our lives.

When an athlete has a checkered past and declines to address the media regarding the drama surrounding him, we demand transparency and honesty, no matter what the cost.

My personal favorite is when it is discovered that an athlete at the top of his game used performance-enhancing drugs to attain his success. We label the player a liar, a cheat and a downright thief.

With the BYU basketball team’s recent suspension of Brandon Davies for having sex with his girlfriend, we cannot believe a team would be foolish enough to blow its chances at a championship.

The situation, essentially, boils down to this: A legitimately championship-worthy team stuck to the school’s honor code and reprimanded a key player for his transgressions off the court.

Consequently, fans and media members alike are scratching their heads, wondering how a team could throw away the possibility of topping off a special season with a deep championship run.

So, sports fans, which is it? Should we encourage the modern athlete to engage in premarital sex and live the lifestyle we wish we could with the kind of money we’ll never see in our lives? Or should we applaud a top school for sticking to its proverbial guns and setting a standard for current and future players?

When the news broke that college football star Cam Newton and his family broke various collegiate rules, the public demanded that he be forthcoming with us. Anything less than 100 percent honesty from him and we’d be done with him forever.

Newton opted for the honest route following the conclusion of his collegiate playing career. He chose to invite anyone and everyone to watch him throw at the combine and see his skills on display.

After his sub-par performance at the combine, scouts and media members are calling Newton every name in the book synonymous with “stupid” for allowing the world to see his shortcomings.

Is it just me, or is it unfair to demand something from someone and then when that person obliges, we don’t accept their efforts?

After all, if we expect something, and the person meets the expectation, should they not, at the very least, be praised for trying?

The steroid issue has been beaten to death, but we are still surprised when we find out a superstar is using illegal substances.

What gave it away — the fact that a guy can boost his reputation from practice squad player to Pro Bowl/All-Star caliber within a year or the unbelievable amount of growth the player had in the offseason?

If we enjoy those high-scoring games, body-rocking tackles, mile-long home runs and gravity-defying dunks, then we should at least understand that mere humans need to resort to illegal substances to perform non-human feats.

Simply put, people make mistakes. Their hearts were in the right place, but their heads were not. Everyone deserves a second chance.

We demand a lot — too much, perhaps — of our sports heroes. When a player does something good in the environment, do we immediately have to assume it is for the PR boost?

Maybe this world is changing for the better. Maybe our pessimistic and impulsive views on athletes’ behavior should change as well.