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With all that has been going on in the world of professional sports, many fans have been left in doubt as to whether or not their favorite player is doing things the right way.

For the past year now the National Football League has had several players have a run in with the law, from Michael Vick to Adam “Pacman” Jones to Chris Henry and Tank Johnson.

All of this has led the NFL to stand for the National Felons League. This is not the reputation you want to have with fans.

The normally clean NBA has hit a bump in the road as well with the Tim Donaghy fiasco revolving around a referee betting on games.

Of course, there still is all the talk about Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron's home run record and whether it is legitimate.

However, it seems that in the end, fan attendance will not be affected by all of the trials and tribulations. If you are a sports fan, you are going to watch sports, no matter what the athletes or referees do.

In my case, all of the problems in pro sports are just one of the reasons why I am a much bigger fan of college sports and do not care very much about professional sports.

I know that college sports has its problems too and players get suspended all of the time for doing illegal things, but the severity is a lot lower and there are so many more college athletes that the percentages are probably lower.

Granted, I wasn’t living 25 years ago, but I am a classic nut and I know that the problems then were a great deal fewer than they are today. However, as times have changed in society, so too have they changed in sports.

The purity of sports is just about gone and there is no hint of it turning around anytime soon. The sad thing is that it is becoming more commonplace, so fans are accepting it more and more.

People can point to many things that could be the difference over the years, but a big part of the problems have to do with money. Athletes are vastly overpaid (another reason why I like college sports better) and many of them do not know how to handle being rich and famous, which leads to the problems.

If Vick was only making two million a year, would he still be willing to buy a huge estate and the dogs to fight with? Would Pacman “make it rain” all the time if he only had 800,000 dollars a year to throw around?

I know that with all of the revenue that is made it is hard not to pay them that much, but what if you make tickets and merchandise cheaper? In other words, there are several ways around it. I know that this would never be accepted, especially if people keep buying, but there might be a time when fans draw the line and the sporting industry struggles. What will be done then?

Chances are these things will never happen, but one can’t help but think about the downfall that could be on the horizon given these tough times.

Sports are basically my life and I don’t want them to be tarnished in any way. It would be a shame to see all of the hard work that the legends put into the game go down in smoke because of greedy people who are power hungry.

Tags: barry bonds, greed, michael vick, pacman jones, tim donaghy