Comments
by Scoper...
Good Sport, Bad Sports?
I work in a building that, trendily,
houses three radio stations owned by the same corporate entity. The news
and sports people share a common newsroom. That's oddly appropriate, given
that nowadays, "sports" could be called "police blotter" and vice-versa.
Charlotte, North Carolina is home to an NFL franchise, an NBA franchise,
and a large police department. The first two keep the third awfully busy.
Here's an abbreviated dirty laundry
list:
-
November 1999: Carolina Panther Rae
Carruth is charged, along with three other men, with a drive-by shooting
that resulted in the death of Cherica Adams, Carruth's pregnant girlfriend.
The baby, delivered by emergency c-section, survived. Carruth and the co-defendants
are still awaiting trial.
-
October 1999: Charlotte Hornet Derrick
Coleman charged with drunk driving after hitting a tractor-trailer, an
accident that injured teammate Eldridge Recasner and another passenger.
Found not guilty in court earlier this year.
-
December 1999: Eldridge Recasner (see
above) charged with assaulting a ticket agent at the Seattle, Washington
airport.
-
February 2000: Carolina Panther Jason
Peter charged with drunk driving. Pleaded no contest, license suspended.
-
November 1998: Former Panthers quarterback
Kerry Collins charged with drunk driving. Pleaded no contest, license suspended.
-
January 2000: Charlotte Hornet David
Wesley accused of racing Porsches on a public street with friend and teammate
Bobby Phills. Phills' car goes out of control, hits another car head on,
killing him. Wesley is acquitted of "spontaneous speed competition," but
found guilty of reckless driving. Sentence: $250 fine and 40 hours community
service.
-
July 2000: Charlotte Hornet Anthony
Mason charged in New Orleans with hitting a police officer, public drunkenness
and inciting a riot on Bourbon Street. Pleads not guilty. Case not yet
adjudicated.
Armed with my notes on these athletic
antics (hmm, maybe "armed" is a poor choice of words,) I sat down a few
days ago to write this column. That's when the phone rang. Suddenly I had
to drop everything and go back to my real job, because there had just been
yet another incident involving a local sports figure. Former Panther Fred
Lane (who had been traded to Indianapolis) was in Charlotte to see his
wife. In what police are describing as a domestic argument, she pulled
out a gun and blew him away. As of this writing, she has not been charged.
And this is all from just one sports
market out of dozens in the country. I could have picked any other major
city; it's just that I'm most familiar with this one. But the question
is the same: why? Why do so many professional sports figures seem to be
spinning out of control? And why just in the past couple of years?
Fingers are pointing in every direction,
but we may find ourselves no more able to explain this "syndrome," any
more than we'll ever know the real story behind Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold,
and their suicide/massacre at their Colorado high school. Here's the closest
thing I have to a working theory: It's the money, and what goes with it.
Money is an "amplifier." A person
raised with a fundamental lack of character or social discipline, who becomes
an overnight millionaire, has those flaws enhanced in the sense that he
can "afford to be a jerk." A big fat checkbook won't buy you an ounce of
class; it's either in you to begin with or it isn't. Some lottery winners
suffer the same fate.
I'm reminded of an acquaintance who
recently died, some say, because of his own hedonistic lifestyle. He wasn't
a friend: I wouldn't have him in my home. He was as obnoxious and overbearing
as anyone I've ever known, but he had one talent: making money. He threw
enough of it around so that he wouldn't be lonely, but you get the picture.
He literally had to pay people to spend time with him. And as he lay dying
of catastrophic illness, his so-called "friends" abandoned him.
A follower of Eastern Religion might
call it "karma." I just call it sad.
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