It is amazing how passionate Americans are about what we view as minority sports.

I'm just back from a visit to the States and when I'm there I like to pull their legs about how they can call things the World Series when usually they are the only country that takes part.

At present they have just witnessed, for the first time ever, their national hockey league season being abandoned without a puck being struck.

The problem was a difference over money between the players and the owners.

In the big game of course, their version of football, I was interested to hear that each club is presented with a salary cap which has to be strictly adhered to.

Players' salaries are open to the public so there is no hiding place.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who won the Superbowl only two years ago, have had to lose from their roster four heroes from that big day - not because of any lack of ability but to get rid of their wages. Over half-a-dozen other players have had to re-negotiate their contracts.

I wonder if that could be the answer for some of our own clubs, particularly in the lower divisions - especially in a week when we hear that Cardiff City have got problems with players not being paid.

Wrexham are going into administration, Cambridge United are in a similar plight and my old club Grimsby have got a huge tax bill because, like all clubs at that level, they entered into contracts before the ITV Digital money was withdrawn.

The other game receiving the wrong headline in America is baseball. There the argument is: who has been on steroids?

I suppose it's not hard to guess when some of the strikers look more like Bluto, Popeye's famous enemy, and regularly hit the ball further than Tiger Woods hits a golf ball.

But as I was taking the micky, one of my American friends said, "hang on, what about your game?

What we have to remember, and some of our younger players in particular, is that our game and everything to do with it is screened in just about every country in the world.

While the game itself is not played to such a high level in America, live Premiership games and programmes such as Sky Sports News are broadcast every day.

I was reminded by my American friends that 40 people had been arrested in Blackburn. It sounded a bit like an old Beatles song but before I could explain that it was for a minor incident in a one-off derby, it was also pointed out to me that a bottle from the crowd had narrowly missed Arsene Wenger in the Cup replay at Brammall lane.

As they warmed to their subject, they rubbed it in by pointing they had noticed yet another young player had been sent to jail for drink driving offences.

And, of course, our own David Prutton had made headlines because of his incident with the referee and linesman which were shown over and over again by Sky.

Having met Prutton on a few occasions - all at charity events - I could give him a character reference that he appeared to be a sensible, mild-mannered and smartly-dressed young man who supported the charities.

However, over the years I have known many players who were one thing off the field and completely another once the whistle blew.

We only have to remember dear old John McGrath, left, who regularly deposited opposing forwards into the paddock at The Dell, and Brian O'Neil, who when his best mate Mick Channon would be lying injured on the ground, would ask him not how he was, but "what number did this to you?"

The tackles from those two, and from the likes of Norman Hunters and Tommy Smith, bring tears to the eyes just thinking about them.

But one of the other memories is that amidst all the aggression, there were also plenty of smiles.

The banter between players and also from players to referees and back again, while often critical, was usually more respectful and tinged with a bit of humour.

So why are we now reading that the aggression and bad language which is there for everyone to see, is filtering down to schools football even. After all, the players are still heroes.

It's time for Gordon Taylor of the PFA to tell his players in no uncertain terms to change attitudes.

Money, of course, has become a huge problem and most young men, given the same vast amounts of money, would find it difficult to lead a normal life.

But surely between the PFA and the clubs, with the many staff they now employ, can arrange for general counselling meetings.

Another sensible suggestion is for clubs to encourage players to employ drivers, at their own expense, to ferry them about when they have their nights out.

That way they won't lose their licences, finish up in jail or doing community service.