Athletes and alcohol don't add up

Ledley King is an idiot.

For those of you who don’t live across the pond, King is a footballer and a captain for the Tottenham Hotspurs, the 8th place team in the Barclays Premier League. On May 10, King was arrested for allegedly assaulting a doorman at a nightclub in London.

After his arrest, Hotspurs coach Harry Redknapp issued a ban on alcohol for next season. Later, Redknapp also said that he doesn’t want his players going to nightclubs.

He has a point.

Nothing good happens when you combine athletes and alcohol.

Take a player only hours removed from playing a match, give him a few drinks and put him in a dark room with blaring music. Doesn’t sound like a great idea.

But the problem is global.

Earlier this week, Mike Garrity, a University of Illinois football player, was charged with two counts of felony for aggravated battery outside an Illinois bar.

While the details of the fight suggest the victim aggravated Garrity, there has to be some sort of connection between the bar atmosphere and the night’s end.

Athletes are passionate people. They know how to pump themselves up, and as in King’s case, hours after a match, adrenaline might still be coursing through their veins. So why give a hyper individual access to more fuel?

While some athletes might see Redknapp’s decree as harsh and unrealistic, it makes sense.

Alcohol dehydrates your body, impairs the brain’s ability to function, changes sleep patterns, excretes calcium and affects muscle’s ability to renew itself.

Yep, nothing better after a 0-0 draw to Everton than a couple of pints at the local pub.

“We wouldn’t get these problems if the players weren’t drinking,” Redknapp told the British media.

I can understand the desire to relax after a few hours of hard work. But not when the night’s antics result in an arrest splashed across every London newspaper.

Maybe more coaches should adopt Redknapp’s rule. Perhaps former Pacers coach Rick Carlisle should’ve instituted a “no-club” rule ... although I doubt Stephen “bring-my-gun-with-me” Jackson would’ve followed it.

Which brings up the point that these are grown men, of legal drinking age. Should their boss be allowed to control what they do off the pitch? Should their contracts extend to their personal lives, even if they have a direct impact on the team?

Yes.

These athletes get paid millions of dollars – or pounds in this case – to perform and perform well. Just as fans expect them to give 100 percent on the field, so should they expect them to perform their best out of uniform.

They don’t have to go out after a match or go drinking after practice.

There are other things to do.

Hey, King, I hear the British Museum is free.