On public apologies

Good column from the Washington Post's sports writer about Michael Phelps and how his handlers botched what would otherwise have been a pretty simple crisis communications situation. Looks like Phelps' agent at Octagon tried to bribe The News of the World into not running the now famous photo. Ouch, talk about two wrongs...

The people at Octagon, in their zeal to make every buck they can possibly make, have tried to turn him into Captain America, the symbol of all that is right with sports and the USA. They need to lay off and just let him be who he is: a well-raised young man who, like a lot of well-raised young people makes an occasional mistake

As an aside, I really like Michael Phelps. He grew up about 10 minutes away from me and went to a rival high school. Towson had a huge parade for him when he came home from the Olympics.