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"Pro sports" and "sanity" are words seldom used in the same sentence. But two recent news stories have given me reason to believe that even highly paid athletes are being confronted with occasional doses of mental health.

Not that I'm an expert on pro sports. Or sanity. Despite what my wife believes, I am not a sports addict. I don't watch "The Best Dadgum Sports Show Period," listen to "Mike and Mike in the Morning" or subscribe to any publication with the word "sports" on the cover. When they're on television, I watch Cleveland Browns games religiously and Cleveland Indians games faithfully, but I avoid all the pre-game talking-heads programs zealously. Whether I watch any other televised sports depends a lot on which old Julia Roberts movie may be airing on TMC at the time.

But I read both stories with interest.

The first involves a baseball player whose name I never had heard until he got into a confrontation with his team's general manager two weeks ago. In his own words, "I grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground. I jumped on top of him."

While I occasionally have fantasized about grabbing a boss by the neck and throwing him to the ground, I have refrained for one simple reason: There would be consequences. These consequences might include, but not be limited to: (1) having my boss fire me, (2) having my boss get off the ground to kick the stuffings out of me, or (3) having my boss get off the ground to kick the stuffings out of me and then fire me.

But in pro sports, consequences are rare. So I assumed that the next story about the incident would be a report on whether throwing his boss to the ground may have strained the player's throwing arm and affected his ability to hang a curveball. To my surprise, the next story was that the team fired the player and wasn't going to pay him the $983,607 remaining on his contract. And, after he was fired, every other team in baseball declined to hire him.

That story isn't necessarily over, of course. The players' union has filed a grievance over the injustice of an employee being fired merely for grabbing his boss by the neck and throwing him to the ground. And he still may wind up being hired by another team that figures a strong right arm is more important than a general manager's neck.

Still, it's a step in the direction of sanity.

In the same week, the commissioner of the National Football League publicly declared that some pro football players make too much money. Specifically, pro football players who never have played pro football. Referring to a rookie who had been signed to a $57.75 million contract, $30 million of which is guaranteed. The commissioner called it "ridiculous."

"There's something wrong about the system," he declared. "He doesn't play a down in the NFL and he already has his money. The money should go to people who perform."

As encouraging as these two stories are to those of us who never have choked our boss and don't expect to make $57.75 million in the next five years, I probably shouldn't read too much into them, though.

Maybe it's just a case of temporary sanity.