Thanks to $50 parking, over-priced tickets and beer and popcorn that costs an arm and a leg, the average sports fan isn't exactly feeling too empowered these days.

Fortunately, however, there's still one way for fans to lord over millionaire athletes; simply raise your expectations to the roof and ask them to travel a righteous path that we rarely follow ourselves.

"Spoiled pro athletes," fans often grumble. "If I was a player I'd show a lot more respect for the game."

But based on society's scorecard, most of us seem to suffer from the same foibles that have been known to trip up our sporting heroes.

At the recent U.S. Open, Serena Williams was ripped for losing it while losing her semifinal match to Kim Clijsters. Channeling her inner John McEnroe, Serena unleashed a foul-mouthed verbal attack on a line judge who called her on a foot foul. But while the tennis star's reaction was definitely over the top, it wasn't much different than the average outburst from frustrated city drivers who find themselves stuck in traffic. Besides, in her attempt to win one of the most treasured titles in sports, at least Serena had a good reason for going nuts. Road Ragers, on the other hand, have been known to turn into psycho's simply because the poor guy in front of them lingers a little too long when the traffic light turns green.

"Okay," the People's Court grumbles, "So we've been known to suffer from "Road Rage", but at least "'Roid Rage" isn't a problem."

All season long, A-Rod, or "A-Roid" as he's come to be known, has been booed unmercifully after finally coming clean on playing dirty. But while many people bemoan the drug culture in sports, chemical assistance is also a big part of our culture at large.

Performance-enhancing drugs?

There's no better example than a certain little blue love pill that gives new meaning to participating in a marathon. But while there's new life for Joe Public's aging body parts, pro athletes aren't allowed to grow old at all.

Brett Favre has led the Minnesota Vikings to a pair of victories in his comeback from his first comeback. However, there are still critics who can't figure out why the 39-year old quarterback can't seem to get football out of his system.

"Hang up the cleats already," Brett-bashers exclaim. "You're just going to end up making a fool of yourself."

But forget about cleats; what we really need to do is walk in another man's shoes. It's easy to plan a retirement party for someone else, but when the shoe is on the other foot (such as ours, for instance) it's tough to be forced into giving up something you love.

It's a cliché, but it really does seem like only yesterday that I was a 23-year old broadcaster working at my first television station in Calgary. Like a lot of people that age, I thought I knew it all and my cockiness only increased when management promised me the Calgary Flames play-by-play job as soon as local legend Ed Whalen decided to retire. Eventually, however, I grew frustrated with Ed's "Just one more year" pledges and moved on from the station wondering why a man who had accomplished so much couldn't be content to ride off into the sunset.

Unfortunately, Ed passed away in 2001 at the age of 74, (shortly after he finally did retire, by the way) and even though we managed to maintain our friendship over the years, I never got the chance to tell him that I finally understood his reluctance to call it quits. As a young buck, I took a lot of pride in boldly stating that I wasn't going to be one of those guys who holds on to a microphone too long.

Now, I'm not so certain.

The truth is, the more you're around the thing you love, the more you appreciate it.

Favre doesn't want to give up football, Ed had trouble walking away from the broadcast booth and I have a feeling that I'm destined to leave the business kicking and screaming, too.

But are any of us really that different from the heroes we hold to such a high standard?

Like Serena, we all flip out once in awhile.

A-Rod shouldn't have messed around with steroids, but a lot of people are tempted to try and gain a chemical edge.

And while Favre desperately holds on to football, many of us have a similar fear of retirement.

So, go ahead and boo an athlete the next time they're guilty of bad behavior.

But while we look for the faults of the performers on the playing field, it wouldn't be a bad idea to look in our own mirror every so often.