I've read the stories this week about Pitt star defensive end Jabaal Sheard pleading down a felony assault charge to a summary disorderly conduct charge after his role in a South Side street fight last month.

I've also heard all the reasons Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt is right and fair for reinstating Sheard to the team with no apparent plans to suspend him for the Panthers' big opening game Sept. 2 at Utah.

Summary disorderly conduct is like a traffic citation. What's the big deal?"

And:

"Good kids deserve a break. Sheard is a good kid. Heck, he once was honored for pulling an elderly woman out of a burning home in Florida. So he made a little mistake. Is Pitt supposed to cut off his legs?"

And:

"The Utah game is huge. If Pitt wins out there, it could go undefeated. Why penalize all of the players because of something one did?"

And, my favorite:

"Sheard couldn't possibly have started this fight. He had to be provoked. He took it for as long as he could, but he ended up doing what any real man would do."

Maybe you're buying it.

I'm not.

I think it's nonsense.

I'm also thinking Sheard is a very lucky man for two reasons:

One, he easily could have blown not just his senior season at Pitt, but his future in the NFL because of one night of stupidity. He has been projected as a high-round draft choice next spring, maybe even a first-rounder. That he could put himself in a position to get in a street fight early on a Sunday morning with so much to lose is almost incomprehensible.

And two, he is playing for a coach and an athletic director who, at least in his case, aren't practicing what they like to preach. If I've heard Wannstedt and athletic director Steve Pederson say it once, I've heard them say dozens of times that they want a strong program at Pitt -- not just a strong team -- and that they're always going to do the right thing for the long term rather than overlook problems for short-term benefit.

Well, guess what?

Hey, I know that admirable policy isn't always easy to follow. Wannstedt and Pederson wouldn't have to swallow hard to suspend Sheard if he were a third-string defensive end or if Pitt's opener was against New Hampshire at Heinz Field. Of course, it's a lot more difficult in this case. But that doesn't change the message Wannstedt and Pederson will be sending if they allow Sheard to play at Utah. They might as well tack up a sign in the locker room that says: "If you're a good enough player and the game is really big, you can get away with bad behavior."

That's just flat-out wrong.

The initial charges against Sheard were significant and serious -- aggravated assault, resisting arrest, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. The early reports had him throwing a man through the glass front door of an East Carson Street art gallery and then continuing to pummel him even as an off-duty policeman ordered him to stop. Police had to break up the fight by using pepper spray.

My first thought: Wannstedt has to throw Sheard off the team.

But that thought passed quickly. I learned a long time ago not to pronounce judgment on something like this until the legal system did its thing. There always are two sides to a story. The early reports often differ from what a thorough investigation reveals.

But the Sheard case no longer is a he said/he said story. Sheard pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and will pay a $300 fine plus court costs. He also agreed to pay the medical bills for the man he fought and to write a letter of apology to him.

That tells me Sheard is hardly just an innocent victim of provocation.

Sure, Sheard probably did the plea agreement to make this all go away. I've seen enough "L.A. Law" and "Law and Order" to know that. The last thing he could have wanted was to go to a trial, which would have been time-consuming and costly. One other thing, too: He could have been found guilty, which wouldn't have done much for his football career.

Clearly, Sheard received sound legal advice.

But the guilty plea to disorderly conduct shouldn't have cleared Sheard with Wannstedt, who suspended him from the team after the fight, which is an easy thing to do in the summer when there are no team activities. In announcing in a statement Wednesday that Sheard was back on the squad, Wannstedt said that Sheard will be subjected to "internal discipline and accountability." Usually, that means a player has to run at 6 a.m. for a few days.

Sorry.

That just doesn't seem like enough in this case.

Sheard didn't just let himself, his teammates and his coaches down that early morning on that South Side street. He was a pretty poor representative of Pitt.

Sitting out the Utah game hardly seems like excessive punishment.