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We shouldn't be so surprised. We put our sports figures on such high pedestals that when they fall, we condemn them for their mistakes.

Atlanta Falcon quarterback Michael Vick is just a man, a man who happens to be very skilled behind the front line of a professional football team. Would we be so upset except for the fact that he's earned enough money to be envied for his mistakes?

If he weren't so famous as an American sports figure, would we be so upset that he was found guilty for getting caught doing what many other men in this country do: participate in illegal dog fighting?

Who should be ashamed? Mr. Vick, the highly rated quarterback of a football team in a league plagued by other ordinary men who commit crimes and make mistakes like any average joe in any average position or station in society?

Or, should we be ashamed of ourselves for putting so much value on the heads of men who make too much money playing in grass three months a year?

As if professional athletes are the pillar of society, we don't suffer such a grand scale reaction when men and women in other professions make mistakes. Only the ones in the limelight suffer the censure of the public. Our society has become so enthralled with the men and women of sports and entertainment, putting them on pedestals of heroic proportion, as if the famed professions they undertake are any more valuable than those infamous jobs we average citizens do.

Who are we to point fingers at Michael Vick and other fallen sports figures? We made them who they are by buying into the whole NFL experience. We demand entertainment; we supply the fuel for owners of professional sports and for agents of professional entertainers to pay outrageous sums of money to entertain us. We, who perpetuate the pressure for professional sports and entertainment, are the ones who should feel the shame.

First, we set them on a pedestal. Then, when they prove to be only human, we knock them right off the same pedestal, saying "how dare they behave this way! They are role models."

No, they are not. They are athletes. They are no less fallible than politicians, teachers, police officers, and fire fighters; they are no better than garbage collectors, plumbers, construction workers, or waitresses. Every profession requires a set of skills that any employee must possess to achieve the tasks of the job.

The only difference between famous professionals and the rest of us lies in our desire to watch them work. They are not role models just because

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