You watch these young men play football at your school. You see them excel and the great ones go on to play for pay. You're just a fan, but you feel a distant bond with these guys. So if they survive the big-time college sports scene and all of the traps that go along with that, you feel pretty good about a guy's future. Still, you worry. The life of an NFL or pro athlete is a world that few of us could comprehend.* The pressure to stay in the game, to stay on top, to keep earning in a truly competitive environment has obviously resulted in bad decisions across the board.
I'm not going to defend Dana Stubblefield's actions, but as a member of the University of Kansas family, I still support him and will until I either have personal conversation with him that changes my judgement or he shows a repeated pattern of "unacceptable behavior" in the public arena.
At this point, he's owning up to his mistakes and is ready to pay the penalty. I'll take him at that and hope the best for him in the future.
*Admittedly, they have no clue about working in the pressures of life in real world. I don't want to give the impression that I think they have it harder than the rest of us -- just different.
