Category Archives: Sports news

Hey, Mr. Lewis: Do not speak about criminal cover-up

Ray Lewis was one heck of a football player. He’ll probably be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible.

He also managed to dodge a serious crime involving a homicide. So, when the subject of another pro athlete getting into trouble with the law, my advice to Lewis is simple: Recuse yourself from any discussion about this issue. Button it up, young man.

http://www.thescore.com/news/584226

Lewis was speaking on ESPN about Ray Rice’s indefinite suspension from the NFL after a video surfaced showing him cold-cocking his then-fiancée. Here’s Lewis: “When you watch this video, you see that somewhere this young man, some leadership was lost. He got out there … and started doing his own thing and what happens is what’s in the dark is going to come to light.”

He might regret saying anything at all about this case. Why?

Well, in 2000 Lewis was involved in the death of two men at a Super Bowl party. He was charged initially with murder and aggravated assault when the men were stabbed to death. He testified against two other men who also were involved. The murder charges were dropped and Lewis pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of — here it comes — obstruction of justice.

Oh, brother.

So now this guy pops off about another out-of-control pro athlete doing something “in the dark” that “is going to come to light.”

Social media went crazy over this little bit of wisdom from someone formerly accused of murder.

ESPN perhaps ought to have known better than to open this discussion in Ray Lewis’s presence. As for Lewis, I believe when the subject comes up again he needs to wave his hands in the air and say, “No mas.”

'Role model' definition needs some work

There once was a time when I disagreed completely with Charles Barkley’s assertion that “I am not a role model.”

The events of the past few weeks involving some high-profile professional athletes are making me put that comment in an entirely new perspective. Role models? Probably not. Ambassadors? Yes.

The pro football players who have been caught up in cases involving domestic violence and child abuse are facing criminal charges. Barkley, to the best of my recollection, never got ensnared in criminal activity while he was playing professional basketball. He said some strange things and behaved a bit boorishly at times. He could play a great game of basketball, for which he was compensated handsomely.

The activity under scrutiny these days is quite different. It involves the law and whether highly paid professional athletes have broken certain laws that prohibit the abuse of children or committing acts of violence on another human being.

As I re-watched Barkley’s video, he said something that rings so true. The real “role models” in children’s lives are their parents. “Just because I can dunk a basketball,” Barkley said, “doesn’t mean I can raise your kids.”

I cannot pretend to know what kind of childhood the men involved in these recent cases of alleged criminal activity had. One of the pro football players, Ray Rice, apologized for hitting his then-fiancée by saying he was raised by his single mother and that his behavior wasn’t the kind of thing his mom taught him to do.

I’ll accept that.

However, what about the role that these athletes play as ambassadors for the organizations that pay them these huge sums of money? Or the communities they represent when they wear the athletic uniforms that carry the names of the teams?

The role of ambassador should mean something to these guys, their employers and the governing body — in this case the National Football League — that oversees everyone’s conduct.

Revoke NFL's 'non-profit' status

If Congress is going to get involved in anything involving the National Football League, it should be quite specific and it should deal exclusively with matters of taxation.

Take the league’s status as a “non-profit” entity, which exempts it from paying federal taxes.

Yank that status. Now.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/218301-reid-joins-bill-aiming-to-revoke-nfl-nonprofit-status

We’ve heard some clamoring from lawmakers about the House and Senate convening hearings over the issue of domestic violence. Accordingly, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., has proposed a bill that would remove the non-profit status and dedicate revenue received toward paying for programs dealing with this tragic issue.

The hearings are a waste of time. All they would do is give senators and House members a platform to pontificate in public about their indignation over domestic violence.

Other senators, such as Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., are targeting the non-profit issue as a way to punish the league for its support of the Washington Redskins team nickname, which many Americans believe denigrates Native Americans.

Whatever the cause, the tax issue is the only way Congress should get involved in the affairs of a private enterprise.

Frankly, I’m astonished that the NFL enjoys the tax-exempt status at all. To suggest the league is a “non-profit” organization is laughable on its face.

Congress has a role to play in fixing what’s wrong with the NFL. That role, though, should focus solely on taxation.

Another one joins a sad, sorry list of thugs

You can add Greg Hardy to the National Football League’s list of abusive scoundrels … allegedly.

He plays for the Carolina Panthers and has been added to something called the “commissioner’s exempt” list, whatever that’s supposed to mean.

I guess it means the NFL commissioner has deemed him unfit to play football while he’s being investigated for criminal activity.

Hardy, too, has been charged with domestic violence, along with Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson (whose actual allegation involves abuse of his 4-year-old son).

Will there be more to come? I’m betting yes.

Houston, we have a problem.

The NFL well might be a deep source of embarrassment, shame and recrimination.

Large, physically fit athletes are being charged with some despicable crimes.

As bad as it seems to look now for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, I’ll give him credit at least for admitting openly that he blew it initially when he suspended former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for just two games after learning he had punched his fiancée in the face, knocking her out cold in that casino elevator. Rice is now suspended indefinitely and has been fired by the Ravens.

I’m beginning to think we’re seeing just the beginning of a long and miserable tale of woe in the National Football League.

Vikings make right call in Peterson case

Adrian Peterson was supposed to play football this weekend for the Minnesota Vikings.

Now he’s out of the game.

The All-Pro running back has been indicted on child brutality charges involving injuries suffered by his 4-year-old son when dear old Dad took a tree branch to him while disciplining him.

http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/vikings-place-adrian-peterson-on-exempt-list

This case has me vexed. Does it rise to the level of domestic violence acts being committed by other pro football players? No, but it’s serious and potentially tragic nonetheless.

I’m beginning to tilt more toward tough sanctions against this guy.

Think about what happened here: A 220-pound man takes a piece of wood to a 4-year-old boy and inflicts bodily injury on him. Does that constitute spanking the way most of us understand the term? Hardly.

I was spanked twice — I think — by my mother. Both times she used her hand. One incident I remember vividly occurred in the back seat of a car in which she actually “turned me over her knee” and gave me a serious walloping.

Peterson’s use of a tree branch goes beyond what I understand to be spanking.

The Vikings now have placed him on some sort of “exempt” list, which bars him from all team activities while this case is being investigated. Sponsors are pulling their endorsements from the team, costing the Vikings considerable amounts of money. Fans are protesting against the team; I suspect there might be a fan boycott if the Vikings reinstate Peterson too soon.

Yes, this is a serious matter that deserves serious attention.

The Vikings are giving it all the attention it deserves, which is a lot.

Peterson case getting complicated

I’m trying to wrap my arms around the case of Adrian Peterson.

This one is much tougher to grasp than, say, the case of Ray Rice, the former Baltimore Ravens running back who cold-cocked his fiancée and was suspended by the National Football League.

Peterson’s case involves his parental discipline techniques. He’s been indicted for inflicting injury to his 4-year-old son while disciplining him. The Minnesota Vikings running back — who’d been benched when the indictment alleging criminal activity came down — is going to play on Sunday.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11534340/adrian-peterson-minnesota-vikings-facing-second-child-abuse-accusation

Does the Peterson case rise to the level of the Rice case? Not in my eyes.

But now we hear about injuries inflicted by Peterson on another of his sons.

I’ve heard the comments from those who wondered whether we’ve gotten too “soft.” They bemoan the fact that their spankings by parents using switches — as Peterson did on his son — are now considered “child abuse.” I’m trying to keep an open mind on this one.

I don’t like what I’ve heard about the injury suffered by the little boy. Do they constitute child abuse under the law? Peterson says he never intended to inflict such injury, that he was just administering punishment similar to what he got as a boy growing up in East Texas.

About the only conclusion I can draw so far about the Peterson case is that it doesn’t come close to the kind of violence inflicted by other professional athletes against their spouses and/or girlfriend, i.e., the Ray Rice matter.

This one is causing me some heartburn.

I don’t condone Peterson’s attempt to discipline his young children. But I am not yet willing to accept that he deserves the kind of scorn that is being heaped on Ray Rice.

Congress to look into NFL conduct? C'mon!

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has opened the door for yet another congressional spectacle in which lawmakers will seek to call attention to a problem that should be solved by someone else.

Domestic violence is the issue of the day.

Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said today that the National Football League’s response to the Ray Rice scandal — he punched his then-fiancée unconscious, remember? — has been “outrageous.”

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2014/09/gillibrand-hearings-after-ray-rice-incident-possible-195428.html?hp=r1

So, what’s Congress going to do about it?

Gillibrand thinks hearings are possible. To what end?

I think I know. The end will be to allow senators to make speeches, to get their names into print, their faces on TV and they’ll be able to express justifiable outrage at the way the NFL has handled these cases involving players striking the women in their lives.

Give me a break.

Congress has many more, and much larger, fish to fry — pardon the expression — than butting into the business of the NFL.

Yes, the league has a serious image problem. The owners need to hold Commissioner Roger Goodell accountable for the way he has handled the Rice matter. Goodell does work for the owners, who will need to decide whether the commissioner keeps his job.

The NFL already has launched an independent investigation led by former FBI director Robert Mueller, who vows to be thorough in his probe and plans to reveal his findings to the public the moment he has assembled all the facts in the case.

Let’s be clear: The domestic violence crisis in the NFL is a serious burden for the league to bear. It must make these offenders accountable and they must pay for the horrible acts of violence they commit. That’s within the NFL’s purview.

Congress has to worry about whether to approve air strikes in Syria; it has to look for ways to ensure that Americans are safe from terrorists; it must decide whether to act on the myriad programs proposed by President Obama, but which have been stuck in the congressional gridlock.

It need not conduct show hearings for the purpose of allowing elected politicians to make spectacles of themselves.

Independent probe needed in Rice case

The case of Ray Rice is getting serious.

The former Baltimore Ravens running back who hit his fiancée — who’s now his wife — is out of a job after knocking his wife unconscious in a New Jersey casino elevator.

http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/investigation-has-bought-nfl-roger-goodell-time-he-needs-ray-rice-091114

But it’s getting complicated now.

National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell said he didn’t see the video of Rice smashing his wife in the face until just the other day. The Associated Press reports that the league office got the video in April, two months after the incident.

The question: Did the commissioner cover up what he knew and when he knew it?

That’s where former FBI director Robert Mueller comes in. He’s going to conduct (presumably) a thorough, independent investigation of what happened. He’ll report back to the NFL and to the public.

At issue is whether the NFL sought to whitewash this case to protect its image. If it turns out Goodell knew far earlier than what he’s acknowledged, he ought to be fired summarily.

The bigger issue, of course, is how the organization is going to handle domestic violence cases involving its employees in the future. Rice initially got a two-game “suspension.” Then the video showing him punching his wife came out. The league suspended Rice indefinitely and the Ravens fired him from the team.

Robert Mueller needs to get to the bottom of this case and he needs to follow every lead he gets to get to the truth — and to who knew what and when they knew it.

Rice caught on camera; cut by Ravens, suspended by NFL

Ray Rice doesn’t think so, but it’s a good thing an elevator camera didn’t blink.

It happened to catch the former Baltimore Ravens running back in the act of cold-cocking his then-fiancée — who’s now his wife — in a hotel elevator.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11489134/baltimore-ravens-cut-ray-rice-new-video-surfaces

TMZ released copies of the video. The National Football League expressed appropriate outrage. The Ravens released Rice and the league has slapped him with an “indefinite” suspension.

This all comes after the league announced a tough new policy regarding domestic violence and after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell — in an extraordinary mea culpa — disclosed that he “got it wrong” when he imposed a two-game suspension on Rice for allegedly beating the woman unconscious.

The camera now has revealed that there’s no “allegedly” about it. He did the deed and has been kicked out of the league presumably for the foreseeable future.

In July, Rice said this about what he did: “I know that’s not who I am as a man. That’s not who my mom raised me to be. If anybody knows me, they know I was raised by a single parent, and that was my mother. I let her down, I let my wife down, I let my daughter down. I let my wife’s parents down. I let the whole Baltimore community down. I let my teammates down. I let so many people down because of 30 seconds of my life that I know I can’t take back.”

That’s not who he is as a man? Well, I will differ with him on that. The video reveals something quite different.

Yes, he let a lot of people down. Still, he must face the punishment he’s been given.

The Ravens and the NFL have made exactly the right call.

 

Racist rant brings right response

Donald Sterling, the former owner of the Los Angeles Clippers professional basketball team, was caught saying some hideous things about African-Americans. His response? He fought tooth and nail to keep control of his team. He failed in that effort.

Bruce Levenson, owner of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, has admitted to sending out racist emails two years ago. His response? He announced his intention to sell his majority interest in the Hawks, he has apologized to NBA fans everywhere and is vowing to bow out quietly.

Which man did the honorable thing?

Of course you know the answer: Bruce Levenson.

http://time.com/3292250/atlanta-hawks-selling/

Levenson’s email reportedly said some derogatory things about African-American fans. “I’m truly embarrassed by my words in that email and I apologize to the Hawks family and all of our fans,” Levenson said in a statement. Levenson said he had “trivialized our fans by making clichéd assumptions about their interests” based on their race and ethnicity.

The NBA, which has demonstrated its zero-tolerance policy on racial matters, was quick to commend Levenson for thinking first about the NBA, the Hawks and “the Atlanta community.”

That, folks, is how you respond to an incident in which you have shamed yourself.