Radley Balko of The Agitator wrote a fictional post entitled “A Letter I’d Like To See (But Won’t).” The post, written as a letter to the public by Phelps, touches on many problems surrounding the perception of athletes, including a double standard many are held to:

I work my ass off 10 months per year. It’s that hard work that gave you all those gooey feelings of patriotism last summer. If during my brief window of down time I want to relax, enjoy myself, and partake of a substance that’s a hell of a lot less bad for me than alcohol, tobacco, or, frankly, most of the prescription drugs most of you are taking, well, you can spare me the lecture.

A few other articles touched on a similar vein. Dave Larzelere of The Sporting Blog wrote about Phelps and the “rampant hypocrisy” of marijuana use in the United States:

If he had been photographed drinking a Heineken, it would not be news. If he had been photographed drinking his 11th Heineken, it would not be news. And if he had been photographed smoking a Pall Mall, it would not be news. But a hit of weed during his months of celebration after a lifetime of discipline and self-abnegation in pursuit of one of the most astounding athletic feats of all time, and suddenly he’s tabloid-fodder around the globe, sponsors are ready to drop him and he’s talking about how he’s so sorry that he’s disappointed all of his fans and he’s never going do it again, etc., etc.

Jay Mariotti of AOL’s Fanhouse echoed this idea, saying: “Marijuana is not cocaine. Marijuana is not steroids.”

From those articles it is clear that there is a shifting attitude toward marijuana use in our country. But there is more to the positive media Phelps has garnered than just that. Other articles made arguments for Phelps without mentioning the drug angle.

An article by Tunk Varadarajan for Forbes.com confronted the tabloid News of the World, the paper that posted the Phelps photo, for performing “gotcha” journalism:

I’m not a killjoy, and I don’t believe that newspapers must only edify us, and not entertain (or even, occasionally, titillate). But in a story such as this, we need to ask whether anything of value–to the readers, to society at large–was imparted by the News of the World’s story, and, especially, by the salivating manner of its telling. We learned that a 23-year-old got high on a college campus. OK, so he was no ordinary 23-year-old. But does that justify a tawdry tabloid “gotcha,” in which nothing is uplifted, nothing improved and in which private human experience is wielded as a public weapon–as a knife to scar a young man’s life?

To be clear, Varadarajan isn’t absolving Phelps of fault in his piece. But it’s important to note that he responded not to Phelps but to the paper that first reported the story.

So the question is, why is Phelps receiving this kind of treatment?

Certainly the majority of athletes caught up in legal troubles don’t, especially if they have already been arrested for a DUI as Phelps was in 2004. Josh Howard didn’t receive this kind of defense over the summer. Ricky Williams didn’t get this kind of attention either. And there weren’t many Cincinnati Bengals getting supportive articles written on their behalf from the press.

Has society’s perception of marijuana has changed that drastically? Has the press become accustomed to athletes getting in trouble? Are they supportive because Phelps is an Olympic hero fresh off of his record performances this past summer? Is it because he’s white? Certainly it can’t be because he’s 23 — the majority of top athletes today are in their early 20′s.

Whatever the reason, there’s no denying that for all the articles calling out Phelps for failing his duties as a role model, there are  just as many saying one hit from a bong shouldn’t have garnered this kind of attention and public outcry.

*** UPDATE ***: Kellog’s just announced yesterday it won’t renew its sponsorship contract with Phelps (set to expire at the end of the month). Already there is more media support for Phelps, this excerpt from Dan Shanoff’s W.U.C. post on The Sporting Blog this morning:

Can you imagine if the NBA handed out 3-month suspensions for every player who took a puff of pot? There wouldn’t be a league left. USA Swimming is being overly harsh; the biggest star in the sport’s history has earned the credit to screw up once (and barely that) without the overreaction of a 3-month ban. (I’m curious if they would hit him with the same ban if it would have kept him out of the Worlds.)

…

It would serve USA Swimming right if Phelps said he was seceding from his affiliation from the organization and would plan to swim as a “U.S. Independent.” (Yes, I know that’s not realistic, but I just think this decision by USA Swimming is so ludicrous, maybe THEY should be punished.)

*** More Links *** They just keep surfacing. This one, titled “Marijuana and Athleticism,” is by Brian Beutler on Matthew Yglesias’s blog at Think Progress.

Here, Seth Meyers from SNL weighs in: