Tank's not your Average Joe

With his record, free pass to Miami doesn't set well

Tank Johnson cannot be trusted on the mean streets of Chicago's northern suburbs because god knows what trouble there is to be had there, what with that rowdy Ravinia and Botanic Garden. But in Miami, surrounded by the world's biggest party scene, Super Bowl week, where players notoriously have crumbled under the pressure and temptation and gotten into trouble?

Well, OK, Tank. But one more slip-up, the judge said Tuesday, and there will be ''dire consequences.''

A Cook County judge ruled that Johnson, a Bears defensive tackle, can leave the state for the Super Bowl. He's under house arrest locally because he might have violated probation and can leave only to go to work. In Miami, he'll have no limitations.

Does this sound anything like in high school, when the jocks skipped detention because they had to go to practice? This makes about as much sense as a parent sternly punishing his kid, then letting him off temporarily to go to Florida for spring break. But one more slip-up, and watch out.

Sure.

Let's file this under the category of athletes living under different rules than the rest of us. It's surely within the law. But something tells me a lot of Average Joes out there might not have been allowed to leave the state.

It's good for the Bears, of course, who really need Johnson. That's why they didn't seriously punish him in the first place.

When Johnson was arrested on another gun charge, general manager Jerry Angelo said that was it. Three arrests in 18 months? There's a line you can't cross. He drew a new line.

Then Johnson crossed it, going late that night to Ice Bar, where his friend Willie Posey was shot to death. At first, Johnson allegedly tried to deny to police that he had been there. New line.

We just keep drawing new lines, and saying things like ''This time, we really mean it'' and ''Dire consequences will result.''

Some people don't care about Johnson's personal life. Some say no messages are sent.

Last week my daughter told me it was too bad the ''White Sox'' player wouldn't be able to play because he had all the guns. On Tuesday, she said, ''Why don't you write about how that guy keeps doing something bad and he doesn't go to jail?''

Oh, the silly things 6-year-olds say.

So now, Johnson is free to roam --in Miami, for the Super Bowl. Every year, it seems, players get in trouble around the big show.

I once asked ex-Bear Otis Wilson why the Super Bowl atmosphere leads to trouble.

''It's just a matter of there being so many people down there, and you don't know who's who, what's what, or who's getting back to who,'' Wilson said. ''Any individual has already done what he's doing at the Super Bowl. It's just magnified there.

''It's like a zoo. [Women] are going to throw themselves at you because of the lifestyle we live. We eat at the finest restaurants and usually don't pay. It's just magnified there.''

It's hard to keep all the Super Bowl incidents straight. There was the one in which Atlanta Falcons safety Eugene Robinson, hours after winning an award for ''high moral character,'' was arrested for soliciting an undercover police officer for sex. There was the year in San Diego when the Oakland Raiders' Pro Bowl center, Barret Robbins, was sent home after going on a drinking binge in Tijuana. He reportedly had been crying the night before about all the pressure from the Super Bowl.

Before the 2001 Super Bowl in Tampa, NFL officials were worried about players getting illegal lap dances at a club named Mons Venus.

''The NFL has sent all the players letters not to come into these places or be arrested,'' Mons Venus owner Joe Redner told me at the time. ''I've got the feeling they're going to come anyway.''

The most famous Super Bowl meltdown was that of Cincinnati Bengals running back Stanley Wilson at Super Bowl XXIII in Miami. The day before the game, he was in the hotel elevator going to a team meeting. He said he had forgotten his playbook and went back to his room. A few minutes later, he was found shivering on the bathroom floor with cocaine on his face.

''That atmosphere becomes intoxicating,'' Wilson's former teammate Solomon Wilcots told me once. ''And if there is anything about your character that's maybe hidden underneath the surface, it might come out. When something is that intoxicating, you tend to lose your inhibitions.''

But the judge felt that environment was OK for Johnson. The temptations apply for every player, of course. But if Johnson crosses the line, he knows the consequences.

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