How honest is too honest?

How much do you really want to know about the sports profession?

Fans say they want to know the in's and out's, but when you learn the cold, hard truth do you have the same respect for the game?

Two recent incidents brought this to my mind.

Cole Hamels admitting to beaming Bryce Harper on purpose and Cris Carter coming out with details about his own bounty system in the NFL.

Sure, pitchers plunk hitters all the time. There's retaliation for good hits, previously hit batters on a pitcher's own team, any number of reasons why a pitcher may purposely hit a batter.

Hamels owned up to it, and got a longer suspension because of it.

Does it hurt him in the long run? No. He doesn't even miss a scheduled start.

Does it accomplish anything? Probably not.

In the end, the Hamels thing is pretty common.

This bounty situation is a bit deeper and murkier than the Hamels deal.

Pitchers hitting batters is one thing.

Players setting bounties on other players, for any reason, is a bit more questionable.

Cris Carter came out and said he put bounties on opposing players who were looking to take cheap shots at him.

It was about protection.

But it carried a financial incentive.

He later said the word bounty may not have been the best word choice with the Saints "pay for play" situation at hand, but did not back down from the claims he made.

Carter did say the point was always protection, never about causing harm to another player, but where do you draw the line?

Do you really want to know what else is lurking out there?

Sure, there's the side of getting everything out in the open. There's also the side of maintaining the image sports professions have worked to establish and keeping a blind eye to the mishaps and truth of the situation.

What's the solution? I don't have one.

What's right? I'm not sure there's an easy answer to that either.

Until something is figured out, there are two truths.

There will still be problems, and there will still be fans watching.