by David P. Greisman

Society is forgiving and unforgiving. There are those whose lapses in judgment left them forever cast aside. There are many others who received second chances and had remarkable second acts.

Robert Downey Jr. spent years mired in addiction and incarceration and then moved beyond to even greater fame and acclaim. Hollywood executives went from not being able to rely on him for parts to realizing they could now turn to him for blockbuster roles.

Mike Tyson returned from serving time for rape and remained one of the greatest attractions in sports. Tyson later left boxing as a cautionary tale, a tale that seemed headed toward a tragic conclusion. Now a man who was an object of hatred and the subject of jokes has become a beloved figure, someone who finally found a semblance of stability and a way to cash in on his sustained celebrity.

Boxing is a sport that is prime for second chances. Losses in the ring can be overcome. Lapses outside of the ring don’t mean as much. A fighter’s name carries value. If people will still tune in, buy tickets or order pay-per-views — and they do — then promoters and networks will feature those whose actions would rarely be tolerated in professional team sports.

Adrien Broner has been able to get past two losses and get away with many more lapses.

He shouldn’t put himself in position anymore for more of either.

The latest allegations are troubling: Broner is accused of assaulting and robbing a man whom he’d lost money to while betting on bowling late one night in January in Cincinnati. Broner was allegedly armed with a gun and backed by a group of people when he punched the man and took thousands of dollars. The alleged victim filed a lawsuit in February. Police investigating the case said last week that they ultimately uncovered enough evidence and witness statements to charge Broner with felonious assault and aggravated robbery.

There’s a warrant out for Broner’s arrest in Ohio. He fights this Friday in Washington, D.C., where he’s also been training to defend his junior welterweight world title against Ashley Theophane.

Broner’s never shied from controversy. He’s embraced it as a marketing mechanism, attempting to exploit it in a similar manner to that of Floyd Mayweather Jr. But his many run-ins with the court system aren’t part of that. There’s a difference between what he does on camera or on social media and what he does when he’s not performing for public consumption.

His familiarity with the judicial system is nothing new. He was in jail as a juvenile. Nearly three years ago to this day, I wrote a column looking at Broner’s legal problems as an adult, most of which were in Hamilton County, Ohio, where Cincinnati is located.

“Online court records show more than two dozen listings in every year from 2007 through 2012, 17 of which are various traffic violations,” I wrote at the time. “He has also faced the prospect of criminal trials in some of the other instances, though the county’s court records show these cases — accusations such as robbery, assault, menacing, domestic violence, and having a concealed weapon — ending in acquittal or with the charges being dismissed.”

“He has been able to shrug off and shut out these cases, avoiding them derailing his career whether that were to happen in the courthouse or in the arenas,” I wrote. “But as with boxing, one tempts fate when he believes he can slip every shot.”

He’s yet to be put down for the count in court. An assault case in 2014 was dismissed. An accusation of driving drunk in 2015 led to a “no contest” plea for reckless driving, a suspended driver’s license and a suspended sentence; that court case is listed in online records as still being open.

We can’t expect fighters to be angels. Many come from troubled backgrounds. And they make mistakes, just as the rest of us do.

It’s frustrating to watch a fighter potentially sabotage himself, however. It’s even more frustrating to see a person get away with misbehaving and to do so while showing little or no remorse and little or no motivation to change his ways. And it’s maddening to know that the fighter won’t change his ways so long as others don’t give him any reason to change.

It appears that Broner-Theophane will go on despite the open warrant. Broner, who’s been able to succeed in the past despite the potential distractions, should come out the victor. The outcome is less certain when it comes to the criminal charges.

But unless there’s incarceration, there needs to be an intervention.

This isn’t a team sport, yet his behavior has potential consequences on the network broadcast and the arena revenue. There are people with Spike TV and Premier Boxing Champions and his own team, never mind the other boxers on the card, who are counting on him being able to headline the show.

We don’t know all of what does or doesn’t go on behind the scenes. Yet his various extracurricular actions and antics apparently haven’t been enough for people to tell him he won’t fight until he straightens up. They keep giving him the spotlight and big paychecks. They earn money from him. They want to keep milking their cash cow.

This isn’t the Cleveland Browns cutting Johnny Manziel. Broner’s too big a star, too integral to the promotion, and he doesn’t have teammates who’d want the distraction gone. Then again, the UFC suspended Jon Jones — a mixed martial artist in an individual sport, though a high-profile one representing the corporate brand — after serious outside-the-Octagon problems continued to mount.

Broner had come to train in D.C., where he and his trainer have long had a second home working with the team behind Lamont and Anthony Peterson, and where he says he gets good sparring.

"I love training camp in D.C. because it takes me out of my element. I can get rid of the distractions and focus on boxing,” Broner was quoted as saying in a press release from his publicists last week. “The team we have down here brings the best out of me.”

He’s needed to rededicate himself after a pair of disappointing losses. There was the defeat to Marcos Maidana in 2013 and the lackluster performance against Shawn Porter last year. Both came against good opponents. Broner won a vacant world title last November, a belt in a fourth weight class. Afterward, Broner said he’d learned that he needed to do more than merely work hard and that he needed to continue being focused and more mature.

Before that fight, trainer Mike Stafford said he’d seen a difference in his fighter.

“He’s not gambling. He’s not hanging out. He’s not going partying. He’s not making the personal appearances like he would before,” Stafford said in an early September interview with FightHype. “That kinda took away from his training. If you stay up late, it’s hard to get up. He’s up every day at 8 o’clock, hitting the hills at 9 o’clock, coming back home and resting, [and] in the gym at 4:30.”

The alleged bowling alley incident didn’t happen during training camp, but it did involve being out late and gambling — and it involves accusations of assault and brandishing a weapon. Broner had to know there’d be potential repercussions.

There might still be ramifications in the legal system. There won’t be with the PBC show, which is still slated to air Broner-Theophane, or the D.C. athletic commission, which is still going to allow a boxer with an open warrant for his arrest to fight in its jurisdiction. How many other employers would allow workers back on the job after becoming aware of such violent accusations? How many times have we seen athletes suspended after being arrested?

Broner is responsible for his own actions, but those who support him are enabling him with their inaction.

He’s far from the only one. So many fighters have been allowed to compete despite pending criminal charges or a history of repulsive behavior. It’s how they earn a living, but how they earn a living is a privilege not normally extended to anyone else unless they are legally licensed and are competing in a sanctioned and supervised bout.

Boxing rarely seems to care, though. And if boxing doesn’t care, then why should the boxers?

“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com