Issue date: 3/18/10 Section: Sports

Media Credit: MCT campus Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger

When reports broke last week of Steelers' quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's alleged sexual assault of a Georgia college student, eyes should have been opened across the sports world. Mine definitely were. I spent the first two years of my college life in Milledgeville, Ga., the town where this incident took place.

I also happened to be spending spring break there during the aftermath of the incident. Roethlisberger, who already has a rape allegation on his résumé to go along with a near fatal motorcycle accident and two Super Bowl rings, is obviously no stranger to the tabloids and a perfect example of the pampered lives athletes lead.

Roethlisberger was in Milledgeville because he owns a house on nearby Lake Oconee, but the question is: Why was he at the club, Capital City? Unless it is hosting a Luke Bryan or Zac Brown Band concert, Capital City is usually packed wall to wall with unsuspecting freshmen or sophomores women who aren't legally allowed to take a sip of alcohol. (The bars in Milledgeville are 18 to enter, 21 to drink.) Most of the people I know quit going there at the age of 19. Roethlisberger is 28 so I'm going to have a tough time being convinced that Big Ben was just there to "hang out with his buddies."

It's sad that a lot of athletes get what they want just by their last name. Many of them don't even possess a college degree, and some that do, most likely had the better looking female student that sat next to them in class take tests for them. Now, it's obviously not easy to pick apart an NFL defense, or get a hold of a Roy Halladay curveball, but anyone who has heard an interview with Cardinals' centerfielder Colby Rasmus should have an idea of how intelligent some of these high profile people really are.

Yes, Tiger Woods is a Stanford graduate, and probably the greatest athlete of our generation, but he also proved that being an athlete has its perks last year, didn't he?

I honestly could care less how many home runs you can hit, goals you can score, touchdowns you catch or dunks you can throw down. Being a better person off the field and realizing that once you become famous your personal life is essentially non existent, needs to be higher on the list for some of these athletes we love.

True fans will remember what you did off the field a lot longer than what you did on the field. So next time you decide to check out the night life in Milledgeville, Mr. Roethlisberger, I suggest you steer clear of Capital City and stay across Hancock street at the Velvet Elvis. It has better happy hour specials anyway.

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