On September 20, San Francisco 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith was arrested after a single car accident on suspicion of DUI and marijuana possession. He checked into a rehab facility following his team’s Week 3 game against the Indianapolis Colts, and he has only recently returned to his team after a month away. On October 9, Smith was charged with three felony counts relating to assault weapon possession stemming from a brawl at a party in 2012.

This awful saga is less than a year removed from a spectacular season by Smith in which he recorded 17.5 sacks and seemed primed to become an all-time great pass-rusher over the course of a long and prosperous career.

Did Aldon Smith the person throw away all of the goodwill that Aldon Smith the player had engendered over his first two years in the NFL? To some, yes. To this writer, certainly not.

There’s an epidemic sweeping the national sports scene, driven by the inability of actual sports news to satiate ever-quickening news cycles. Suddenly, to fill time in never-ending broadcasts, talking heads are forced to discuss the personal transgressions of athletes as much as their athletic achievements. Off-field behavior has become confounded with on-field performance to the point that no athletes- can be evaluated purely on the basis of their play.

So when a player like Smith appears in the headlines in a bad way, public outcry is not far behind. People who respected and idolized Smith on the basis of his play now denounce him for his poor judgment, as if he betrayed their trust. Fans assume that athletes at the highest level are people of the highest character as well—and ruthlessly revoke their appreciation when proven wrong.

The truth is that there isn’t necessarily any correlation between athletic talent and the ability to stay out of trouble as an athlete. Those skill sets are completely independent. It’s about time that the sports-watching public learns to appreciate the qualities that set apart the best athletes, the immense physical ability and drive, and continues to recognize them even after a fall from grace like Smith’s.

Whenever Smith returns to the field, nobody has to cheer for him because he’s a great person—his actions cannot be condoned. However, cheering for him because he’s a great athlete with so much left to offer to his sport? That’s a requirement for any true fan.