How Do You Rank The Top Sports Crimes?
The texts, tweets and Facebook reaction has been flooding in.
Was Donald Sterling treated fairly? (Read my blog from Tuesday)
How can Mike Vick kill dogs and still play QB?
Riley Cooper gets a contract extension after dropping the 'N word'?
Doesn't this mean Jim Irsay should lose the Colts?
Because of these questions and comparisons, I decided to rank the sports crimes. More importantly, I'd love YOU to rank them.
*DISCLAIMER: Not every athlete was convicted of the crime. I also can't list every crime in the history of sports, although a link to Pacman Jones' Wikipedia page would probably cover it.
*REMINDER: Fair or not (and often times it's not), this list is made up strictly on how these acts are viewed and accepted in the SPORTS WORLD. In real life, physical violence is almost always worse than verbal. Fact of the matter is, I have a much better chance of keeping my job after a bar fight than if I went Mel Gibson or Michael Richards on someone.
Also keep in mind the same crime cannot be treated equal. I can say and do more inappropriate things than the President of CBS. He's just more important (HEAR THAT BOSS) and therefore, held to a higher standard. Remember that while judging Donald Sterling and the rest of these sports crimes.
1) Murder: We can all agree this is the #1 seed. OJ and Aaron Hernandez (ALLEGEDLY) are the worst of the worst.
2) Sexual Assault: Darren Sharper is being held and Ben Roethlisberger was suspended.
3) Mike Vick: I was completely torn between Vick and Ray Rice here (assaulting a woman-ALLEGEDLY). For the record, I value the life of a human over an animal every day of the week, but Vick's dogs were methodically tortured and killed. If we were only talking abuse, then Rice would be worse. The murders were my deciding factor.
4) Donald Sterling: Typing e-v-e-r-y s-i-n-g-l-e l-e-t-t-e-r of this feels wrong, but one of the worst parts of sports is the reality that you can beat your wife or girlfriend WHILE smoking crack....and still suit up.
If Sterling had delivered black eyes instead of hating black guys, he'd still be courtside. Because he was a team owner, he HAD to be removed.
Think about the kind of future the Clippers may have had after the incident. Would Doc Rivers and Chris Paul be viewed as "Uncle Tom's" if they stayed? What if future free agents refused to sign? What if current players wanted to leave? How long would advertisers stay away? What type of fan violence could ensue?
In a league comprised of at least 70% black players, Adam Silver had to drop the hammer.
*Racist Side-note: I rank Sterling ahead of Riley Cooper because even though Sterling never used the 'N-word' in the recordings, I view his consistent and obvious DISDAIN for African-Americans and minorities to be worse than Cooper's one-time offense.
5) Assault (ESPECIALLY of a female): I originally had this as #4 right behind Vick. Again, the hierarchy of crimes in the sports world are all F'd up. Donald Sterling could've gone all Chris Brown on 3 women, and he'd still probably own the Clippers today. Sad, but true.
6) Drinking & Driving: Ahhh, the case of Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay. You could easily argue that risking the lives of others while intoxicated should be higher on the list (I wouldn't fight you on it). I'm separating Irsay from Donte Stallworth since no one was injured in Irsay's case. Josh Brent? That's a different story. I'm strictly looking at DUI and DWI. If Irsay was only pulled over for drinking, he'd get a slap on the wrist. It's the drugs and the mysterious $29K that did him in.
7) Riley Cooper: I still view the N-word as the single, ugliest, most hateful word in America.
8) Kobe's homophobic slur: As is the case with mother-f'er and SOB, the word Kobe dropped is often not used in a literal sense. When you call someone a "son-of-a B," you're not really insulting their mother. I obviously don't know for sure, but I don't think Kobe was thinking of sexual preference when he lashed out inappropriately. I'm not justifying the use of the f word, just telling you the real world use from my experience.
So there's my list. When it comes to sports crimes, you gotta remember to factor in position, power and platform. If a player was caught on those recordings, they're still employed. For someone in the position of Donald Sterling, it had to be game over.
How do YOU rank the sports crimes?
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