Mom's boyfriend.

Followers of the NFL heard about Minnesota Vikings' running back Adrian Peterson losing his 2 year old son last week.  The child was beaten to death by his mother's boyfriend.  There isn't a lot of detail about how involved the multi-millionaire football player was with this child -- obviously he wasn't married to the mother and somehow this child became another sad statistic;  losing his tiny, young life at the hands of "mom's boyfriend." How many times do we hear that phrase?   Indeed, there's a lot to be debated about wealthy pro athletes spawning kids all over the place and then apparently having little to do with their well-being.  Of course, lots of people who aren't pro athletes are guilty of the same thing.

It goes without saying that we all feel physically ill at the idea of child abuse. I once worked in an in-patient pediatric health care setting and I couldn't imagine being a physician or a nurse who had to treat those patients and somehow keep it together.    I REALLY want to see a big-name professional athlete (or several of them)  come out and blanket the airwaves with public-service announcements on child abuse prevention.  I want to see those ads run during NFL and NBA and NHL games.   The only pro athlete I'm aware of who has done these types of ads is Mark McGwire, and that's because I saw him on a poster in a doctor's office once.  Think anyone else will step up to the plate?