True to form, Cincy takes a chance on Johnson

When we were children, our mothers taught us to mind our manners, say 'please' and 'thank you' and play nicely with others.

Those behaviors were supposed to be guiding lights as we entered adolescence and adulthood, aiding us to interact and work well with others.

But when a person hits celebrity status, all things learned as a child are completely thrown by the wayside.

In fact in some cases it seems that erratic behavior receives a warmer welcome than Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.

Take for instance the latest NFL star to get a bad rap.

Larry Johnson was recently released from the Kansas City Chiefs after comments the running back posted on Twitter caused fans to protest and owners to be concerned about the future of the star, who was 75 yards short of breaking Priest Holmes' team rushing record.

Now it seems the Cincinnati Bengals will take on the LJ challenge.

It shouldn't be too surprising that Cincy is willing to try to tame the beast.

The Bengals are also supporting one of the NFL's biggest problems in Chad Ochocinco. And by supporting I mean paying him.

I won't get started on the problems with this non-star, who has done relatively little to be praised on or off the football field in his time with the Bengals, other than drawing attention to himself and changing his name. This might be the best season Cincinnati registers with Chad before he flies the coop.

But Ochocinco and LJ aren't the only problems among the star athlete ranks.

We are constantly fueling this kind of behavior by tuning in to OCNN (that's the Ochocinco News Network), following the stars on Twitter and purchasing Michael Vick jerseys for our puppies (although by my calculation, if my cat could sit on and suffocate it, it's not a dog).

We love to see the stars go bad, as much as we hate to admit it.

And coaches love to "fix" the naughty kids. Maybe they have to prove something to Mommy, or maybe we just love the bad boys.

Let's look at the bad boys of the NFL who continue to find homes season after season.

Terrell Owens has bounced from the Eagles to the Cowboys and now to the Bills after the 49ers drafted him in the third round out of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 1996.

Michael Vick spent 18 months in prison before the Falcons shipped him to the Eagles this season. Apparently Philadelphia missed their former bad boy T.O. enough to risk employing another one.

It almost seems like Philly is trying a little too hard to be more like its division rival Dallas, at least as far as inking the bad boys goes.

The Cowboys used to be the team that came to mind most quickly when discussing the bad boys of the league.

They took Adam 'Pacman' Jones from Tennessee after the Titans' cornerback was suspended for the 2007 season. But even Jones was too much of a bad boy for America's Team, which cut him following the 2008 season. Now Jones is playing a few miles north of Dallas in the CFL.

I could go on listing more of these NFL bad boys, but what's the point?

Whatever the case, as a society we are addicted to the celebrity drug. We watch Entertainment Tonight, read Perez Hilton's blogs and force even the most reputable news networks to offer us "the sleeze."

The powers that be in professional and college sports know that fans aren't going to buy into the "goody-goody athletes" nearly as much as they'll pay to see the bad boys strut their stuff on the field.

Some days reading the headlines on ESPN or Fox Sports is more like reading a nation-wide police report.

Someone might want to tell all the budding sports journalists out there to get some experience covering a crime and courts beat.

But maybe these athletes just have trouble dealing with all the star power celebrity status.

It seems pretty easy to get a big head in the NFL these days and with all that praise screaming at you from week to week, why wouldn't you throw drinks on women, insult your fans, question the abilities of your head coach and even throw around the occasional homosexual slur? (All are things LJ allegedly did.)

We put athletes on such a high throne that it becomes difficult to punish them when they believe they are above the law. We don't want to see the MVP frontrunner wasting the best years of his career in prison, do we? Of course not.

But the bad boy status might play a significant role in drawing athletes into the league. Even LeBron James thinks he could have a legitimate shot at playing pro football - and not just for the struggling Cleveland Browns.

"If I put all my time and commitment into it, if I dedicated myself to the game of football, I could be really good," the Cleveland Cavaliers guard said in an article by the Associated Press on Tuesday. "No matter what team I was on."

Maybe LeBron is seeking some of that NFL bad boy power.

On the other hand, maybe LeBron just wants to play in a league that people still watch.

Maybe Larry Johnson's mother never taught him proper decorum.

Or maybe he learned that unruly behavior is like sex - it sells.