Jamal Anderson is doing the dirty bird... and the white horse

This weekend Jamal Anderson, former Pro Bowler for the Atlanta Falcons was arrested for possession of cocaine and marijuana.

Last week a photo of Michael Phelps was leaked where he was at a college party taking a hit from a bong.

Saturday, reports were released that Alex Rodriguez failed a drug test, testing positive for steroids in 2003.

They say celebrity deaths happen in three's... I guess you can say athletes with drug problems happen in three's as well.

Let's break these down one at a time.

First off, Jamal... what the hell man!?! Sure, this isn't 1998 and not everyone knows or cares where you are... but both of those drugs are illegal! You volunteered and help kids and you go and do this stuff. Use your head!

Michael... I understand your still a young guy, a kid. Lots of people in their early 20's smoke pot. However, not all people in their early 20's win eight gold medals breaking a mark set by Mr. Spitz. You have a reputation as an American hero and you cannot do something that stupid when you have high regard in this country.

Finally, Alex.... you said that you took the steroids because you felt the huge pressure to succeed in Texas. The only way you were going to succeed in the Lone Star state was if you also pitched 2 of every five game. You should have been learning pitching mechanics from Tom House instead of shooting up illegal substances to get bigger muscles. Now, you're legacy and stats have been compromised.

Listening to the John DiTullio Show this morning with a bunch of Yankee fans still fawning, hoping there is some loop hole to get A-Rod out of his A-Fraud state, it got me to thinking. Well, it's more of me re-thinking a point I love to make.

As Americans, especially young boys, we grow up with this strong hero worship thing involving professional athletes. I'm not saying it's bad, because we all do it at one point. Though for people my age, we got to see what athletes are really like off the field. Courtesy of TMZ and ESPN, we have so much access to LeBron James and Alex Rodriguez. We knew LeBron was pulled over for speeding and Madonna dropped Guy for Alex.

I remember when I was a fan of young, rookie Allen Iverson... before the cornrows. I remember his Reebok commercials and the way it seemed like he was playing on a level I never saw a rook play. Then... he gets nailed for having weed on his person. I tried to defend him, I knew he probably did, but I still denied it.

Then it was Randy Moss. This guy was unreal. His game is so amazing, he can take a one yard wide out screen and turn it into a 75 yard touchdown. Then he is caught lighting up the Mary Jane and running down meter maids.

From then on I picked up from Thomas Boswell's philosophy on admiring athletes. He is quoted in Ken Burn's Baseball when they focused on drug users in 1980's baseball, that we have a thing with hero worship. For a certain number of years we looked up to ball players. Though we should not do that or look down on players either. We should look at them on the level and not place them higher than ourselves or members of our own family. Essentially the core of his argument is that we need to take these guys for who they are... human beings. We place them, the President of the United States and members of the clergy on such a high pedestal. Though we are all human and as the saying goes, err is to human.

The moral of the story is we should not trying to defend, hero worship athletes for when they fall. As members of the human race, they, much like us, are prone to do stupid things. Granted we don't mess up on national television and on the Internet. So let's cut them a little slack but not let them off the hook. That is how O.J. got off of murder.