The Eagles once asked, in their song, "Lyin' Eyes," "Did she get tired or did she just get lazy? She's so far gone she feels just like a fool." Someone should play that song for Roger Goodell, because the NFL commissioner probably feels the same way right now about his league.

Michael Vick, the embattled Atlanta Falcons quarterback, was recently indicted on charges related to dog fighting, a federal offense. Adam "Pacman" Jones, a cornerback for the Tennessee Titans, has had numerous run-ins with the law within the past year and has been suspended for the entire upcoming season. The Cincinnati Bengals seem like they have a player in the nubs of the news every week, and the list goes on and on. To sum it up, the NFL has some off-field issues to deal with right now.

With more and more news being taken up by pieces and updates of professional athletes' off-the-field issues, a serious question must be asked: Is our culture's obsession with glorifying professional athletes healthy?

Thanks to 24-hour sports news radio and television networks, not to mention a multi-billion-dollar sports industry, it is incredibly hard to get away from professional sports today. The constant attention and the need for all-day networks to talk about something at all times has led to a media athlete-worshipping culture topped off by the No. 1 sports network, as ESPN holds a competition called "Who's Now?"

The daily piece consists of a panel of four so-called experts debating on who generates the most buzz on and off the field. In simpler and more disturbing terms, all it really is, is the world's top sports news network leading its viewers down yet another path that leads to the worship of sports stars.

As Stefan Ming, a freshman at North Dakota State University, said on his sports blog, "The Sports Flow," "This is ESPN, not E! Entertainment News."

As the culprits for a lot of this so-called idol worship, teenagers are at the center of this debate. What do Bismarck teens have to say about it?

"I think it's too bad that someone like Michael Vick would think he was so invincible," said Joel Porter, a senior at St. Mary's Central High School. "He had such a great career ahead of him and now I don't know if he can come back from all of this."

"I like what NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is doing about the situations," said Jon Reed, a junior at the University of North Dakota and author of the sports blog "Complete Sports." "He is being proactive about the whole thing, and to be honest, I don't think Mike Vick will play another down in the NFL."

So if Michael Vick eventually gets convicted of the charges he faces, is it acceptable to wear his jersey down the street? If one sees someone donning a No. 7 Vick jersey, does one automatically think that the person wearing the jersey condones dogfighting or that he is simply a fan of the on-field Vick? Where is the line between the person off the field and the player on the field, and what crime is serious enough to change our opinion on the player? Dogfighting charges? A DUI? Or does it take a murder charge to derail an icon's popular image, as it did with former NFL great O.J. Simpson?

"I don't think athletes should be treated any differently than your average joe," said Porter.

"I don't think something like a DUI would really lower my opinion of a guy if it only happened once," said Reed. "Everyone makes mistakes, but if it was something more heinous like a violent crime, it would be nearly irreparable in my book."

"I'd say getting caught with drugs," said Chris Keller, a freshman at the University of Mary.

Another musician, John Lennon, once asked us all to "Imagine all the people living life in peace."

I hope it doesn't take more incidents like Michael Vick's to have sports fans, as a whole, ask the players we cheer for to adhere a bit more to Lennon's plea.

(Bryan LaBore is a 2007 graduate of St. Mary's Central High School. He will attend Northern Arizona University this fall.)