WTP: Lance Briggs edition

I am not sure how many of you follow sports at all, as I have mentioned I love sports and so I do watch ESPN's Mike and Mike every morning and every once in a while there is a sports story that I want to talk about here. I was going to talk about Michael Vick, but I felt many others had said what I wanted to say and much better than I could have said it. But the recent story about the Chicago football player, Lance Briggs, was a story that I wanted to briefly mention. Apparently, early Tuesday at about 2 AM, Briggs was driving his brand new Lamborghini and crashed along a highway. He then fled the scene and the police found the car and Briggs hours later when it was too late to test for substances in his system. I do not want to dwell on whether he was drinking and driving because, well, he probably was, but maybe not, we will probably never know for sure since it was too late to perform a Breathalyzer by the time he was found. What I wanted to mention was the press conference that he gave. he said that he panicked and that is why he fled. Ok so I can buy that, he is out late at least speeding if not intoxicated and he loses control of his car, he panics and calls a friend to come and get him. I am not saying this is right, but he was fined for leaving the scene of a crime and I guess it is understandable to panic in that situation. But what comes next is the part that I am like, what the poop? Briggs goes on to say that after the crash, he calls a tow truck and then calls 911 to report his car stolen. He then says, "I called back [the police] and accepted responsibility for what I did because it was ridiculous in the first place." The Chicago police do say they have a call from Briggs at 4 AM after they initially said he had not called till between 8 and 9 AM, but there is no report of Briggs saying his car was stolen.

So, what did Briggs say to the police? And why does Briggs say that he reported the car stolen and then reneges and decides to take responsibility when apparently he never reported it stolen. This makes no sense to me and is yet again a case of a professional athlete who screws up with very few consequences. Now I am not sure what can be done, they are grown ups so there cannot feasibly be a curfew, but maybe that is what is needed. There is no proof, yet, that he was drinking, heck the traffic citations he received were for failure to report an accident immediately and improper lane usage in addition to the leaving the scene of an accident charge, which is a misdemeanor. If I were the Bears team owner or Head Coach, I would be really pissed as this is yet another incident where a player does something which then provides negative publicity and right now the NFL does not need anymore negative publicity, after Michael Vick and Pacman Jones.