Sportmentary Online Sports Talk: What Should Be Done With Ryan Leaf?
What Should Be Done With Ryan Leaf?
Former San Diego Chargers quarterback, Ryan Leaf has been arrested twice over the past few days on drug and burglary charges. The second arrest and charges came on Monday, two days after being arrested on similar charges. Both arrests are in violation of a previous conviction and sentence that gave Leaf 10 years probation for drug violations. Ryan Leaf apparently was on the he right track in the past couple of years but fell of the wagon and is now in a free fall.
This is a tragic story. Sportmentary believes that drug addicts should receive help and be provided the opportunity to get better. That help usually is on the form of drug treatment programs. Sportmentary also beleives in personal responsibility. Drug addicts, like other patients with health problems, need to accept their illness and the treatments available to them.
Leaf has been fighting a brain tumor and that surely has played a role in his spiraling out of control.That being said, society can't condone a person burglarizing the community and stealing dangerous narcotics. If Leaf's problems weren't so serious and he wasn't a repeat offender, I would say his sentence should be confinement to a drug treatment facility for specified amount of time.
Leaf's biggest problems are with Texas. He faces serious jail time in that state. There won't be much sympathy for him there and it's not likely he will be confined to a minimum security prison. Leaf will surely do hard time for his crimes. Is that the answer. Not really but what options do authorities have?
My recommendation would be for Leaf to be confined to a minimum security prison for 5 years (if both Montana and Texas could agree) and also receive mandatory drug treatment and counseling. There's also the issue of Leaf''s health and hopefully he will receive the treatment that is necessary fro him to fight his other health issues.
I don't wish Leaf any harm. It's well documented that drug addicts, face long , tough battles to sobriety but addicts need to do their part int the path to sobriety. Maybe jail time is the low point that Leaf needs to have his world rocked and shattered. Maybe that's what's needed for him to finally, get the help he needs to take action and seriously fight his disease.
I don't think Leaf is a bad man. I think he's a man that has made bad choices and will now pay for those choices. The mark of a strong person is how they battle and fight back from those choices, to make good ones. I hope Leaf can reflect on his college and high school days as a star quarterback and remember what it took to be a winner.
Leaf has a long, extremely tough battle ahead of him, both legally and medically. It's time that Leaf addresses his health issues and addiction and seriously fight to get on path of sobriety. He will have that time in jail to think about how we will turn his life around. What he does with that time is entirely up to him.
The judges in both Montana and Texas needs to send a strong message to Leaf that he can't continue to break the law and his probation that was previously handed down to him. They need to send Leaf to jail but also provide him with a chance to recover from his illness.