There are plenty of nice guys playing sports.

Guys who haven’t taken anything from a booster in college, or driven a fist through the face of a patron on the next bar stool.

Guys who marry their girlfriends, not push them down the stairs.

Guys who, believe it or not, have never been suspended for breaking team rules, NCAA or NFL rules or community rules.

Some of those guys are playing now.

If they’re in college, they’re going to class. They’re buying their own pizza, washing it down with a soft drink. They’re not accepting gifts or selling their equipment.

If they’re in the NFL, they’re leaving their aggression on the field and not taking it home or into a strip club.

It works in sports the way it works in the real world.

It works the other way as well. That’s why our prisons are overflowing and the NFL commissioner and NCAA are so busy these days.

Apparently, we can not stop poor behavior in real life, so we certainly aren’t going to stop it on our playing fields (or before and after our athletes are finished on those fields).

I can’t tell you who the really good guys are and the really bad guys are, but I can tell you that when the worst thing you can say about an athlete is he isn’t an accurate passer or he strikes out too much or he can’t rebound, that’s not so bad.

Chances are, that’s a pretty good guy.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.