Tarnished Gold

All too often we make excuses for the wrong things we do, and they are acceptable to people.

Something like, he/she didn't know what he/she was doing because he/she was drunk.

Or well he/she was too young to know any better or they were just being a kid.

Everyone makes a decision and if it is alcohol that caused it then they should have been responsible and not had that much to drink.

If they are 23, famous, go to a marijuana party and have a picture taken of them smoking pot, I don't think that is just being a kid, especially if they have just won 8 gold medals at the Olympics and have all kinds of endorsements that make them a role model for kids, let alone wealthy.

I for one am glad I can now eat my Frosted Flakes because I feel Kellogg's has done the right thing.

Kellogg to drop Phelps over pipe photo
Company says swimmer 'not consistent with the image of Kellogg'

Cereal and snack maker Kellogg Co. said it won’t renew its sponsorship contract with Olympic swimming star Michael Phelps because of a photo that showed him inhaling from a marijuana pipe.

The Battle Creek, Mich.-based company said Thursday that Phelps’s behavior — caught on camera and published Sunday in the British tabloid News of the World — is “not consistent with the image of Kellogg.”

The company put Phelps on boxes of its Frosted Flakes and Corn Flakes.

There are those that don't agree.

The 23-year-old swimmer, who won eight gold medals in Beijing, has kept the backing of many sponsors since the photo surfaced from a November house party at the University of South Carolina.

Among those standing by him, even if they don’t condone his behavior, are Visa Inc., Speedo, luxury Swiss watchmaker Omega and sports beverage PureSport’s maker Human Performance Labs.

I am disappointed in the sponsors that stayed.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Michael Phelps was suspended from competition for three months by USA Swimming, the latest fallout from a photo that showed the Olympic great inhaling from a marijuana pipe.

The sport’s national governing body also cut off its financial support to Phelps for the same three-month period, effective Thursday.

“This is not a situation where any anti-doping rule was violated, but we decided to send a strong message to Michael because he disappointed so many people, particularly the hundreds of thousands of USA Swimming member kids who look up to him as a role model and a hero,” the Colorado Springs-based federation said in a statement.

USA swimming did the right thing as well and their message rings true.