"This Is the End...."

"....my only friend the End"

While I seem to be lamenting the end of summer, I must admit I really do like Fall. Labor Day weekend means that football is here. The first weekend of college football was just what the doctor ordered. This coming weekend we get the Patriots first game. Caz and I have our first game of the season as well. Year two of coaching JV Mites seems to be going much better than my rookie season. I learned a lot last season. I think I am able to learn from my mistakes and do things better the next time around and this season seems to reflect that.

Now with the lead up to the Patriots kick off, the hype keeps growing by the day. With though, came the story of Rodney Harrison's suspension for violating the banned substance policy of the NFL. You have to understand that the four of us had numerous discussions about Barry Bonds, this past summer while the dubious HR record chase was at the forefront of the media. You also need to realize that Coco and Caz pay attention when we watch SportsDesk or SportsCenter. I was aware that the older kids in the football program were discussing Rodney. The odds are that Caz was going to hear these discussions or hear some of the news about Rodney. So I decided to launch a preemptive strike and initiated a conversation about it with Caz last night. I wanted to make sure he got the most accurate information possible and have a chance to ask questions, if he had them.

At the beginning, I tried to compare the situation to Barry's but highlight the differences. I made it clear that Rodney made a bad decision. He hurt himself and his team. But he admitted his mistake and owned up to his decision. He would pay the price for breaking the rules of the NFL. We had a brief discussion about why the NFL had a long standing drug policy and why MLB did not. He wanted to know why Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi had not been suspended. We talked about steroids and human growth hormones. I acknowledge that this part was a lot to take in. It was OK if he did not understand all of it. This segued into a previous discussion about Lyle Alzado and how he died.

We also talked about peer pressure. We talked about how a friend, in the future, might think that steroids might be a good idea and worth the risk. One of the hardest things to do in life, is to say "No" to a friend, and make your own decision. I laid the foundation for future discussions about alcohol and drugs. This whole parenting thing is a process. Toss in your own building block analogy here. "Onions have layers." Overall, I really feel this was the right decision, to address the topic, and was a worthwhile endeavor. It should pay dividends in the future.