Just the other week, a huge contingent of Minnesota Vikings players were involved in a scandal that can be best described as "The Love Boat". The story goes that Vikings players were among a group of about 100 that rented two charters boats to cruise Lake Minnetonka. During the cruise Vikings players were involved in various sexual acts with a plethora of ladies and left the boats in…how do I put this? Let's just say the boats were left in the same sanitary condition that their season has been kept in thus far. Despite how shocking and graphic the story was it didn't leave me overly surprised. I guess you can chalk up my pro football immunization level to ESPN's cancelled series 'Playmakers'.

	Read 'Out of Bounds' and you'll no longer be shocked about another player arrest. (Source: JeffBenedict.com)

A while ago I read an eye-opening book by Jeff Benedict, titled Out of Bounds: Inside the NBA's Culture of Rape, Violence & Crime. In the book Benedict researched and delved into the specific arrests of NBA players over the past few years. Told through all the research, Out of Bounds states that four out of every ten NBA players has a police record involving a serious crime - 40% of all players! In his previous book Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL, Benedict revealed that 21 percent of all NFL players have been formally charged with a serious crime. The NFL's players look like saints stacked up against NBAers. So that's part of the reason why I no longer find a headline that involves a player arrest surprising. Maybe it's the constant media coverage that has dimmed the level of impact.

The countless number of specialized sports TV channels, radio channels and the use of the Internet as a never-ending information source are a major reason why it's becoming harder to be blown away by a developing sports story. By the time a story actually breaks we've all heard about it in one form or another. The impact and shock of most trades and player signings have now been weakened more the Houston Texans offensive line. With so many sources and media outlets out there everyone is just trying to scoop each other and report on the story first and when media outlets rush a story we usually get inaccuracies.

The steroid scandal has been an omnipresent story in sports for a couple of years now but I don't get why people are surprised by it. Was crazed linebacker Bill Romonowski's admission that he used steroids for a portion of his career a surprise to anyone? If you watched the SB feature during the Bucs-Raiders showdown you would have seen that Romo carries around a tackle box full of pills and worse yet he already has his young son equipped with his very own tackle box of testosterone.

So while I have become desensitized to some aspects of sport I still find myself amazed at some of the other sports stories that continue to happen. For instance take the way in which Michelle Wie was disqualified from her first professional golf tournament as an example.

	Michelle Wie's professional debut was ruined by a pesky reporter. (Source: AP)

Wie finished up the tournament in 4th place and was all set to enjoy the $53,126 she had earned for her efforts when tour officials at the Samsung World Championship informed her that they were disqualifying her for signing an incorrect score card. Apparently during the 3rd round Wie took a drop from an unplayable lie and her ball ended up rolling 3 inches closer to the hole. No one had the caught the "infraction" except for one weasely reporter for Sports Illustrated. Michael Bamberger witnessed Wie's error, kept it to himself until after Wie signed her incorrect scorecard which resulted in the DQ. If he had reported it before Wie handed her scorecard she would have been docked a two-stroke penalty and still finished in the Top 10. I hope Bamberger feels good about tattling on a 16-yr old girl.

Bamberger's offense is actually just another incident in a growing tattletale trend that's happening in golf. Two years ago at the Bell Canadian Open a viewer who was watching the tournament unfold on TV called PGA tour officials and told them of an infraction that went unnoticed. The viewer had spotted that Paul Azinger's caddie removed the flag pin while Azinger's playing partner Fred Funk's ball was still in motion. The tour officials looked into the matter and Azinger was penalized two strokes. I don't know what's more shocking about this - the fact that the PGA officials actually took a phone call from an armchair critic seriously or that there are actually these kinds of people that exist in the world? If you wondered what happened to those geeks who used to ask the teacher if there was any homework for the night, look no further. Mystery solved.

Sports is at its best when it's unpredictable and surprising. So at the very least I'm content with being desensitized to all the drama away from the sport rather than the drama that's created on the pitch. Let me put it this way - if sports can continue to shock me in the same way that seeing how much Mayam Bialik has 'Blossom'ed on a recent "Curb Your Enthusiasm' can, then I will be a happy sports fan.