September 10, 2007

Quarterback Michael Vick may never play again after pleading guilty to a dog-fighting charge, but Denver Broncos running back Travis Henry signed a $25 million contract earlier this year—despite his record as a dead-beat dad with nine out-of-wedlock children with nine different women. At least seven of the mothers went to court to get 28-year-old Henry to help support his off-spring—even as he spent $100,000 on a new car and $146,000 on jewelry for himself.

Even if he obeys court orders to send money, the long-term damage to society remains severe: children growing up in fatherless households face innumerable emotional, educational and even criminal problems. America will only begin to make progress against the plague of out-of-wedlock birth when celebrity skunks like Travis Henry fall from their privileged positions and as columnist DeWayne Wickham rightly demands, the NFL takes cruel treatment of children at least as seriously as horrible abuse of dogs.

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