Another round of blame game

There is a new game that is gaining popularity every day. It's a game that doesn't take any ability to play and men, women and children all take part. What is the game you ask? The blame game.

The game is easy to play. Anytime player A feels guilty about something or finds rationale why someone else is to blame, player B is blamed.

By playing this game, player A is excused from what they have done or they can play the role of "poor me" while trying to get money or other material from player B.

There have been many winners of this exciting game. Smokers who sue tobacco companies because after puffing on cigarettes for 50 years they find out they have lung cancer. Another group of winners are the victims of families whose kids died in tragedies like Columbine. They blamed video games, song lyrics, television shows and movies for mentally deranged kids shooting up a school. One of my favorite winners was the coffee drinkers. The butterfingers spill coffee in their lap and sue the restaurants because the coffee was too hot.

The latest winner in the blame game goes by the name of Dean Hancock. Many of you may know that Mr. Hancock's son, Josh, was a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals until he was killed when the SUV he was driving plowed into the back of a tow truck nearly a month ago.

After the accident it was discovered that the 29-year-old pitcher had been drinking heavily, was speeding, had marijuana in his vehicle, wasn't wearing his seat belt and was talking on his cell phone when he slammed into the back of a tow truck that had emergency lights flashing.

Apparently this wasn't the younger Hancock's fault. Papa Hancock has decided that the first to blame is the restaurant where the pitcher, according to the wrongful death suit, "regularly became intoxicated."

I tend to forget that it's the restaurant's responsibility to monitor the drinking habits of adults. Maybe they should put a breathalyzer at the bar and to order a beer you have to blow and prove you aren't intoxicated.

But the blame game didn't end with the restaurant. Papa Hancock also filed a lawsuit against the tow truck driver, the tow truck company and the guy whose car broke down on the interstate for the death of his son.

I guess a tow truck on the side of the road with emergency lights flashing doesn't attract the attention of someone talking on the cell phone with a blood alcohol content nearly twice the legal limit. And don't forget the owner of the car who broke down. How dare they have a car that breaks down? I'm sure they planned on their car breaking down on the side of the interstate in the middle of the night. That worked perfectly.

The fact is the lawsuit filed by this dope is shameful and even sad. Not only is he embarrassing himself, he is tarnishing his son's image even more than it already was. If he is wanting someone to blame he should think about blaming himself for failing to teaching his son not to drink and drive. Or better yet, blame his son for drinking and driving. But that is the only problem with the blame game. The one who deserves the blame is often not mentioned.