Phelps Gets Off Easy Thanks to Image, Not Race

Those who think Michael Phelps would be facing harsher treatment if he were black are “stuck in the 1960s,” Jason Whitlock writes for Fox Sports. “Image is everything whether you're black or white.” Only bad boys get hung out to dry when controversy calls—Phelps was “quick with the contrite, toke(n) apology and he maintains a boy-next-door image.”

“America gives its marketable, talented and wealthy weed-smokers the Santonio Holmes treatment,” Whitlock writes, referencing the Super Bowl MVP. “We forgive and quickly forget.” Instead of complaining about racial double-standards, we should use Phelps’ flub to make the case for legalizing and regulating weed: “If Michael Phelps just can’t say no, why would we expect kids with far more depressing circumstances to avoid getting high?” (More Michael Phelps stories.)