Why can’t athletes stay clean?

It pains me to say this, but I’m 28 years old. It pains me even more to admit that I will be 29 in June.

I’m not old, but I’m getting to the age where I’m also not young. A lot of my friends are a touch older than I am, so I guess I’m blessed with a wisdom that’s a little bit beyond my years.

But with that said, I enjoy having a good time. Hell, I went to Louisiana State University. I wouldn’t have gotten my degree if I didn’t pass Party 101.

But for as much as I enjoy fun, mayhem and the company of others, a thought passed through my mind this past week as I watched headlines in the world of sports.

Why in the heck can’t people both party and stay out of trouble at the same time?

Why in the heck must athletes insist on taking their indulgences to the absolute extreme to the point of fights, arrests and other pitfalls?

This past week, I was really angered by two, separate headlines regarding this same topic.

Of course, the big one involved Johnny Manziel – the spoiled brat hype-machine known around the sports world as Johnny Football.

Manziel’s NFL career has been loaded with headlines – though they’ve almost all been for the wrong reasons.

In a stretch of two seasons, Manziel has been videoed partying on multiple occasions – each time heavily inebriated and incapable of anything more than slurred speech.

He’s also been accused of domestic abuse after a police surveillance video captured Manziel’s girlfriend telling officers that Johnny Football had hurt her “several times,” and that she sometimes “feared for her life.”

After a stint in rehab, Manziel cooked up a batch of lies about how his life had drastically changed. He behaved for a few weeks, then was back on the loose – partying it up routinely throughout the country.

In the latest incident, Manziel hit a new low. Just one day before a Cleveland Browns game (which Manziel missed due to injury), he was reportedly spotted in Las Vegas with his clique. To avoid paparazzi, he was reportedly in disguise – a blonde wig and a mustache.

That’s a lot of effort to have a beer or two … or three.

I think it’s time that Mr. Manziel accepts and acknowledges that he has a very significant illness called addiction – one that he has to face head-on before he makes a mistake that may turn out to be grave.

The second headline that burst my bubble played out closer to home.

Last Tuesday morning, a news report out of Baton Rouge said that LSU senior tight end Dillon Gordon was injured after being stabbed at Reggie’s Bar.

According to police reports out of Baton Rouge, Gordon was involved in a fight inside of the bar, during which he suffered three stab wounds to the chest.

Gordon was taken to the hospital, but has since been released.

His injuries were not considered serious or life-threatening. Thank goodness for that.

But now that we know that Gordon is OK, we are allowed to ask the question that everyone who shares my opinion would like to know: Why was he even there in the first place?

It’s one thing to be out partying during a weekend every once in a while – heck, that’s what ALL college kids do.

But to be out several hours past midnight on a MONDAY NIGHT? That’s a bit more serious and where I draw the line.

We’re happy Gordon is OK, obviously, but going out and making a scene is not a requirement of an LSU athlete – though it feels like far too often, that’s exactly what happens.

In the past decade, we’ve seen Jeremy Hill, Jordan Jefferson, Ryan Perrilloux and countless other LSU student athletes get in trouble in Baton Rouge nightclubs.

Their misdeeds cost them points on their reputation, which affected when and if they were drafted to the NFL, costing some milions of dollars.

At Nicholls, we saw once-prized halfback Altee Tenpenny be arrested for possessing a firearm at nearly 5 a.m.

He was on the streets after a night out in the club.

A lot of his teammates were by his side on the night that started a downward spiral for Tenpenny that ended in a traffic accident that took his life.

These are all mistakes that could and should be avoided.

Look, I hate to sound old, but it’s really not THAT hard to keep out of trouble.

If you want to party, then do so. But make sure that you either have a designated driver on-hand or access to Uber.

Once it gets to about midnight or 12:30 a.m., go home and live to see another day. The adage is that nothing good happens after midnight, and that’s 100 percent correct.

Too often, athletes get caught up in the hype and fall in love with the attention they see in these situations, losing sight of the fact that they have so much to lose by being there.

Just ask Johnny Manziel – a guy who has enough talent to be on top of the world, but is drinking it all away sip by sip.

Just ask Dillon Gordon. He will have a scar on his body for the rest of his life to remind him of the night that the partying well wrong.

Just ask teammates of Altee Tenpenny, because we can’t ask Altee himself, because he’s tragically no longer with us.

Stay out of trouble, guys.

It’s just not worth it.

Trust me, you will get to my age some day and realize just how bone-headed and short-sighted it is to do the things that you’re doing.•