Normally I don’t care about what (or who) professional athletes do off the field. I subscribe to the theory that the less you know of these guys, the better – the only way not to be disappointed at what douches/assholes/morons many of these guys probably are is to judge them exclusively by their on-field personas. When it comes to their off-field selves, I support the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy.

But sometimes, a news item or an internet image will surface that forces me to see a side of these guys I would be better off not seeing, something that breaches the line between on-field and off-field and permanently compromises the way I feel about them.

No, I’m not talking about Strahan’s ugly divorce, about which I never gave a flying fuck (except that part about him taping his wife’s sister with a hidden camera in an alarm clock, which seemed like a really good idea.)

I’m also not talking about Gibril Wilson (pictured at right with the sunglasses at night, so I can so I can) being a notoriously cheap tipper at strip clubs. I mean, d-backs are some grimy dudes. Everyone knows that. Besides, if we expect them to be stingy when it comes to giving up yards to wide receivers, how can we expect them to be anything other than stingy when it comes to lap dances? (And as far as safeties go, I’d much rather root for a guy who goes to strip clubs, even if he stiffs on tips, than a… man like this.)

No, this stuff doesn’t concern me: I was more concerned about Strahan’s right foot than his prenup; I was much more angry about Gibril’s missing an easy interception in the Dallas game (which, I maintain, was a play that could have changed the season if he had just… caught the fucking ball!) than about his tight-fistedness around the g-string; and the fact that Will Demps missed about a dozen crucial tackles concerns me a lot more than that, in the immortal words of A.C. Slater, he’s “a lover, not a fighter.”

But these photos, courtesy of Sam Rubenstein at SLAM Magazine, are rather alarming. I think they speak for themselves.

Sam succinctly summed up the collective incredulity of G-Men nation when he wrote, “Karaoke on Christmas Eve?” Worse yet, Sam’s source reports that Eli “was doing karaoke to the soundtrack from ‘Grease’ and Bon Jovi’s ‘Living on a Prayer.’” Yeesh.

I mean, this photo was one thing – it just makes Eli look like a normal if somewhat doofy dude. But this latest batch is a matter of grave concern about a guy who, like it or not, is the franchise.