hchamp
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Interesting op ed piece. Does Henry deserve to be treated more harshly by the league? More like Michael Vick? Discuss.
By DeWayne Wickham
I don't know what punishment Michael Vick will get for his bad acts, but I really like the big dose of justice that Travis Henry got.
Vick is the star quarterback with the NFL's Atlanta Falcons whose career was derailed last week when he pleaded guilty to a dogfighting conspiracy charge. He's scheduled to be sentenced in December and could get as much as five years in a federal prison.
Henry, too, is a professional football player. His run-in with the law hasn't gotten as much attention.
A running back with the Denver Broncos, he was hauled into court in June for what I think is an even more despicable offense. He regularly failed to make child support payments for the 3-year-old son he fathered out of wedlock. The boy is one of nine children Henry has sired with nine women. At least seven of these women have gotten court orders to mandate that the multimillionaire football player support his children.
Financially irresponsible
And apparently for good reason.
While Henry was missing support payments for his 3-year-old son, he purchased a car for $100,000 and spent $146,000 on jewelry, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. On at least three occasions in his son's short life, Henry stopped making child support payments to the mother. As deadbeat dads go, this guy is my candidate for "Father of the Year."
Once, he didn't make a payment for six months. He fell behind on two other occasions; once for four months, and another time for three months. On one occasion, Henry borrowed $9,800 from his previous team, the Tennessee Titans, to catch up on his support payments, according to the judgment by Clarence Seeliger, a Superior Court judge in DeKalb County, Ga.
"Defendant has not handled the money he has received during his career in a wise manner, and despite the efforts of a new financial adviser team over the last four years, (he) does not have substantial assets from his income," Seeliger said of the 7-year veteran who signed a $25 million contract with the Broncos in March.
It's bad enough when some guy whose salary hovers around the poverty level doesn't keep up with his child support payments, but it's an inexcusable offense when someone who earns millions of dollars a year stiffs his kid.
Cheers for the judge
That's why I applaud what Seeliger ordered that Henry do.
Because of his "lifestyle" (read this to mean his proclivity for procreation) and his poor money-handling skills, Seeliger said in his June order that Henry, 28, must create a $250,000 trust fund to ensure that his son receives the $3,000-a-month child support payments in a timely fashion.
The judge also ordered Henry to take out a $400,000 life insurance policy and make his son the beneficiary. The money for the trust fund must be taken from signing bonus payments that the Broncos team is scheduled to make to Henry in October and November, and in March 2008.
Now that's what I call creative justice.
For his brutal treatment of dogs, Vick has been suspended indefinitely from the NFL. "Your admitted conduct was not only illegal, but also cruel and reprehensible," Roger Goodell, the league's commissioner, said shortly after Vick's guilty plea.
No such public pronouncement was uttered by Goodell after the most recent in a long line of legal rulings that found Henry to be in violation of a child support order.
Now, I'm not trying to compare what Vick did to dogs — some of which he killed — to Henry's failure to support his child. But just because their bad behavior is substantially different doesn't mean they are not comparatively offensive.
I don't like what Vick did, but I loathe what Henry did — and it bothers me that the NFL doesn't seem to be as bothered by a player who mistreats his children as it is one who violates dogs.
DeWayne Wickham writes on Tuesdays for USA TODAY.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/...y-th.html#more
Children pay the price for this NFL star's actions
By DeWayne Wickham
I don't know what punishment Michael Vick will get for his bad acts, but I really like the big dose of justice that Travis Henry got.
Vick is the star quarterback with the NFL's Atlanta Falcons whose career was derailed last week when he pleaded guilty to a dogfighting conspiracy charge. He's scheduled to be sentenced in December and could get as much as five years in a federal prison.
Henry, too, is a professional football player. His run-in with the law hasn't gotten as much attention.
A running back with the Denver Broncos, he was hauled into court in June for what I think is an even more despicable offense. He regularly failed to make child support payments for the 3-year-old son he fathered out of wedlock. The boy is one of nine children Henry has sired with nine women. At least seven of these women have gotten court orders to mandate that the multimillionaire football player support his children.
Financially irresponsible
And apparently for good reason.
While Henry was missing support payments for his 3-year-old son, he purchased a car for $100,000 and spent $146,000 on jewelry, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. On at least three occasions in his son's short life, Henry stopped making child support payments to the mother. As deadbeat dads go, this guy is my candidate for "Father of the Year."
Once, he didn't make a payment for six months. He fell behind on two other occasions; once for four months, and another time for three months. On one occasion, Henry borrowed $9,800 from his previous team, the Tennessee Titans, to catch up on his support payments, according to the judgment by Clarence Seeliger, a Superior Court judge in DeKalb County, Ga.
"Defendant has not handled the money he has received during his career in a wise manner, and despite the efforts of a new financial adviser team over the last four years, (he) does not have substantial assets from his income," Seeliger said of the 7-year veteran who signed a $25 million contract with the Broncos in March.
It's bad enough when some guy whose salary hovers around the poverty level doesn't keep up with his child support payments, but it's an inexcusable offense when someone who earns millions of dollars a year stiffs his kid.
Cheers for the judge
That's why I applaud what Seeliger ordered that Henry do.
Because of his "lifestyle" (read this to mean his proclivity for procreation) and his poor money-handling skills, Seeliger said in his June order that Henry, 28, must create a $250,000 trust fund to ensure that his son receives the $3,000-a-month child support payments in a timely fashion.
The judge also ordered Henry to take out a $400,000 life insurance policy and make his son the beneficiary. The money for the trust fund must be taken from signing bonus payments that the Broncos team is scheduled to make to Henry in October and November, and in March 2008.
Now that's what I call creative justice.
For his brutal treatment of dogs, Vick has been suspended indefinitely from the NFL. "Your admitted conduct was not only illegal, but also cruel and reprehensible," Roger Goodell, the league's commissioner, said shortly after Vick's guilty plea.
No such public pronouncement was uttered by Goodell after the most recent in a long line of legal rulings that found Henry to be in violation of a child support order.
Now, I'm not trying to compare what Vick did to dogs — some of which he killed — to Henry's failure to support his child. But just because their bad behavior is substantially different doesn't mean they are not comparatively offensive.
I don't like what Vick did, but I loathe what Henry did — and it bothers me that the NFL doesn't seem to be as bothered by a player who mistreats his children as it is one who violates dogs.
DeWayne Wickham writes on Tuesdays for USA TODAY.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/...y-th.html#more
