Pot Phlap

This whole Michael Phelps flap has gotten quite ridiculous. Ya, he smoked some pot. Pot is illegal, or something, whatever. He's a bad role model or something. Oh Lawdy, a guy took a bong hit! To be fair, a lot of people aren't really that upset about it, but there's still a sizable group of self righteous idiots who consider this something to be upset about. I'm willing to bet that a year ago 99% of the people who actually care that Michael Phelps smoked pot had no idea who Michael Phelps was.

I'm not exactly a big Michael Phelps fan, but let's look at the facts. He has 16 Olympic medals. He has 14 Gold Medals. He has about a bagillion other medals from World Championships and more World Records than I care to look up. He's got like $50 million dollars and worldwide fame. And he earned it all. He's not some fake celebrity. Phelps worked his ass off his whole life to get all these things. If anyone's earned a hit, he has.

USA swimming has suspended him from swimming for a few months. Kellogg's has dropped him as a sponsor. Both of these things are stupid. Oh no, he can't swim for you for a few months? I don't know how he'll ever survive such a harsh penalty. Good thing the Olympics are 4 years away and he's got several other chances at high level international competition which will come after this lame suspension is over. A few months now? Really? That's like MLB suspending a baseball player for the month of December. That will teach them.

And Kellogg's dropping him? Of all his sponsors, Kellogg's? Do they not realize that one of the biggest markets for cereal is stoners? This is a potential gold mine for them.

What I love is that Phelps actually did something much, much, much worse than getting filmed taking a hit a long time ago. After his first Olympics, when he was only 19, he got arrested for DUI. He could have killed someone. Why didn't Kellogg's or USA Swimming give a damn about that?