Okay, let’s take a look at some current events and news stories and I want you to recall your first reaction when you heard each of them.

Story #1: Sean Avery, the somewhat controversial left wing for the New York Rangers, will intern at Vogue this summer. Yes, that Vogue. Well, Men’s Vogue to be exact. According to his publicist, “He is ridiculously obsessed with fashion. He loves it more than anything in the world. It's something he has always wanted to do."

Good for Sean. We should all be so lucky to follow our dreams. Twice.

Story #2: Radio station WIP reports last week that Marvin Harrison was involved in an altercation at his Playmakers bar in North Philly that was followed by gunfire in the parking lot. Police later found a gun owned by Harrison that was allegedly involved in the incident, at a nearby carwash that is also owned by Harrison.

Story #3: Bear’s running back Cedric Benson faces charges of resisting arrest and boating while intoxicated. He was hit with pepper spray and forcibly taken ashore by officers of the Lower Colorado River Authority.

Let’s be honest. Gay, Not guilty and Guilty were probably the first reactions of most sports fans. Let’s change the names of the stories to Tom Brady is interning, Chad Johnson was involved in a gunfight at Playmakers and Jared Allen was boating while intoxicated. Wait no, that’s last one is a bad example. Make it Tony Gonzalez was boating while intoxicated.

All of a sudden, the perceptions and presumed innocence or guilt is different, isn’t it? We all judge immediately upon hearing these news stories that seeming surface every day. People are tried and convicted long before they ever actually go to trial to the point that the trials themselves barely make the news.

It is the information age and all with up-to-the-second news, but we’ve gone over the line so much that the phrase “Presumed Innocent” has zero meaning. And let me be clear, I’m not comparing being gay to being guilty of a crime, just using it as a demonstration of wrongly jumping to conclusions. I don’t know the truth in any of these cases, nor do I really care. I’d just prefer we all wait a while before passing judgment. The truth has a tendency to come out. Just ask Michael Vick. Or even Roger Clemens. Just don’t ask him at a Congressional Hearing.