In today's society athletes are admired so much that people sometimes forget that they too are human. They eat just like everyone else, they sleep just like everyone else, and they get punished for breaking the law just like everyone else, or do they? Mike Tyson, Leon Smith, and Dennis Rodman are three professional athletes, all very much in the public's eye, and they have all broken the law, but since they are all making a considerable amount of money for many key people in sports, they have all been given punishments that do not fit their crimes.
             Mike Tyson has a laundry list of atrocious acts that he has committed during his professional career. The first reported on the list was in 1992, when he was accused of raping 18-year old Miss Black America contestant Desiree Washington in Indianapolis. He was then found guilty by a jury and sentenced to serve time in prison. After serving only three of his six year sentence, Tyson was released and came back into the boxing ring. Just two years later, in 1997, during a World Boxing Association championship fight against Evander Holyfield, Tyson bit off part of Holyfield's ear. For this deed, Tyson was only fined approximately 500,000 dollars, and lost the match. Finally, Tyson returned to jail in 1999 for assaulting two motorists during a traffic dispute in 1998. Once again, Tyson still hasn't faced normal consequences, because he makes so much money for so many people.
             Tyson is not the only athlete to receive this star treatment. Leon Smith is now a 20-year-old professional basketball player who currently plays for the Dallas Mavericks. Smith skipped college to go straight into the NBA, where he is having many problems. On November 16th, 1999, after a neighbor called the police in concern of Smith, Smith was found on the floor of his house. His face was painted green, and he claimed that he was "an Indian who was fighting Columbus." Late...