Barry Bonds is without a doubt one of the most polarizing athletes of all time. To many he has become the face of everything that's wrong in sports. They say he's arrogant, a cheater, and an overall despicable person. Some defend him, pointing out that he's never failed a steroid test and that he was already one of baseball's greatest players before his alleged steroid use, but there remains a large number of sports fans who think he deserves nothing less than to be the object of eternal contempt. What's sad to me is that one simple fact seems to be lost in the midst of this ongoing controversy: Barry Bonds is a human being.

I'll admit that I hate certain athletes. Take Kobe Bryant for example. He's long been my least favorite player in the NBA (part of the reason I don't want the Bulls to acquire him). I hate the guy, but it's more his NBA persona that I hate than Kobe Bryant the human being. Sure, he's cocky, he's selfish, and he plays for the Lakers, but I harbor no ill will toward him as a person. Kobe Bryant is ultimately just an athlete, and anything he does on the court is just part of a game. I can dislike his bad qualities, I can root against his team, but as a fellow human being I should wish him well. After all, there are certain things we all have to deal with in life, and no amount of fame or athletic ability makes them any easier. If something bad happens in the personal life of a famous athlete it's no different than if it happened to the average Joe.

That brings us back to Barry Bonds. A look around the internet shows that many people seem to delight in his recent indictment. They're glad his baseball career is most likely over and that he might end up in jail. "He's an arrogant jerk" they say, even though most of them have probably never been the object of said churlishness. "He's a cheater" they say, though there are thousands of things one could do far worse than cheating at a sport. Certainly a person doesn't deserve jail time based on those reasons alone. The fact that so many people seem to be hoping his life is destroyed completely because of offenses that probably hurt him more than anyone else is upsetting.

I wonder how many people have ever thought that (hear me out) Bonds could deserve our sympathy? After all, he's been unfairly targeted in the whole steroids discussion, he's possibly taken several years off his life with drugs, and despite his great career achievements he's reviled by many who see them as tainted. Some would scoff at the very idea. They'd say he brought it all on himself and deserves whatever he gets. They'd say he doesn't care what any of us think about him, so he doesn't need our sympathy. The truth is though, that none of us knows the real Barry Bonds. We only know the persona presented to us. We don't know if deep down he just wants to be loved and respected. We don't know if he regrets any of his past mistakes. We don't know if his hostile exterior is just a defense he's put up around himself because he doesn't know how to deal with certain aspects of life. It's easier just to label him as a bad person than to worry about who he really is.

He may or may not care, but my heart goes out to Barry Bonds right now. He might be guilty of the charges being brought against him, but it's nothing to be happy about if he is. Some people think it serves him right for tarnishing baseball's record book, but no athletic record is more important than a man's life. I highly doubt that Bonds is happy with the way his life has gone over the past several years, and this indictment is yet another difficulty he has to face. It makes a sad story no matter how disagreeable a person it happens to. I can understand why people don't like Bonds. I can understand why they don't like him holding several records. I can't understand though, why anyone would take joy in seeing his life fall apart. If we can't be sad for his situation as fellow human beings, what does that say about us?