Allmendinger Did Wrong, But Should he be Vilified, as Well?
Given that I spent over 20 years in law enforcement, I’m not condoning A.J. Allmendinger’s recent arrest for driving while intoxicated.
Even though he was at the threshold of intoxication, .08, he could have been a lot worse.
But at the same time, why has he been vilified and crucified so much afterward? Why has so much criticism been heaped his way when he made a mistake – I’m not trivializing it, but it was a mistake, nonetheless. He felt he was sober enough to drive, but the traffic stop and resulting breath test he took proved otherwise.
Yet, how many others have been suspected of driving with alcohol in their system over the years, past the point of the legal definition of intoxication, yet either were given a free pass, or at the very least, a free ride home? They’re the ones the public doesn’t hear about. I know of several individuals who’ve skated away from DWI charges simply because they were who they were, and a compassionate cop made it their little secret, not wanting to sully the individual’s name.
In a sport whose roots are steeped in bootlegging alcohol around country and mountainous roads in Tennessee, Virginia, North and South Carolina and other locales, Allmendinger is not the only NASCAR driver alleged to have ever driven drunk. Yet he appears to be singled out for his infraction. And to me, that’s not right. Reporters have breathlessly “reported” about how team owner Richard Petty has been anti-alcohol his whole life, how he refused to accept sponsorship from an alcohol company over the years, and yet GASP!, there he was actually enjoying a glass of wine when Kasey Kahne won at Sonoma – in the middle of wine country – earlier this year.
That’s news? Petty may have previously been anti-alcohol when it comes to his race team, but having a glass of wine caused some reporters to, in essence, make him sound like a hypocrite, much like the way they’re doing with Allmendinger – when some of those same reporters have been a lot more wasted in their own personal lives. I should know, I’ve seen them with my own eyes.
Oh, the stories I could tell …
Now, we’re hearing reports that Allmendinger’s DWI may jeopardize his career, with rumors that potential sponsorship for his car in 2010 is suddenly under review by the company that wanted to invest a lot of money to support him and his racing efforts.
Richard Petty Motorsports and NASCAR have both placed ‘Dinger on probation until the end of the year. Frankly, his once-bright future is suddenly looking cloudy.
All for one stupid mistake, one that Allmendinger readily admits he made. He could have denied it, as other drivers accused of being in recent events that allegedly involved alcohol – I’m not mentioning names, but you know who I’m talking about – but he didn’t. He admitted he messed up, and you have to give some credit to a guy who acknowledges that he did something so seriously wrong – and is just lucky it couldn’t have turned out a whole lot worse, and that no one got injured by him or his lack of good judgment.
But let’s not continue to skewer and flambé him, either. Let’s not say Allmendinger’s the worst person in the world just because he did something really dumb. How many other people in NASCAR, from drivers to team owners, from sanctioning body officials to reporters, have been guilty of being tipsy, if not downright blotto, yet were lucky enough to make it to their home or hotel by sheer luck?
In other words, unlike Allmendinger, they weren’t caught by the cops.
How many have joked about being so drunk that they didn’t know how they got to where it was they wound up at? I know it’s a bad example, but still appropriate nonetheless: would you rather have been on a road with them, totally wasted, or Allmendinger, who was borderline? If I had to make a choice, I’d take my chances with Allmendinger at .08 than someone else at, say, .16 or higher.
If anyone should be vilified, it’s not Allmendinger. It’s all those who’ve done worse, yet have never been caught. Maybe, just maybe, ‘Dinger’s situation may make some of those who, just by a good stroke of fate have not been pulled over for repeated episodes of drunk driving, to reassess just how lucky they’ve been up to now.
Because next time, it could very well be them that gets dinged by the cops, just like ‘Dinger. And then how will they react in turn, as well as AJ did?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 11/01 at 08:49 PM
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