Letters to the Editor 11-24-2004
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- Sports Thuggery
Sports Thuggery
Editor, Times-Union:Try this: The next time you're displeased with the service at a restaurant, toss a beer at your waiter.
Let's say your waiter then slugs you in the jaw.
As a result, the waiter get a few days off without pay, and you go home, looking forward to your next meal in the restaurant.
In the real world, this would never happen. In the real world, it's likely you and the waiter would be locked up and never allowed back in the restaurant.
But in the rarefied world of professional sports, thugs get slapped with extended vacations, and are welcomed back with no consequence other than the loss of pay for their time off. Since these athletes can afford to lose 80 percent of their salary and still be richer than you'll ever be, chances are they won't have to worry about putting gas in their Bentleys.
When Mike Tyson bit off Evander Holyfield's ear, he lost 10 percent of his $30 million purse. So he walked home with only $27 million and was banned from boxing for one year. "Here's $27 million, Mike. And for additional punishment, we're not going to allow anybody to punch you for a year." Ouch! Whose ear do I have to bite off to get that deal?
When Latrell Sprewell tried to kill his coach, P.J. Carlessimo, the initial penalty was a 10-day suspension. A week and a half. As a child, I was grounded longer than that for a bad report card. The public screamed bloody attempted murder, and the NBA voided the rest of his contract, a decision which was later reversed. Sprewell had no trouble finding another job, hired, apparently, by a team looking for an easy way to get rid of its coach. "If we fire the coach, we have to buy out his contract. But if Sprewell kills him ..."
Todd Bertuzzi will actually go to trial in January for cheap-shotting Steve Moore during a professional hockey game. Why did this particular incident result in a trial? Well, somebody actually got hurt. Apparently in hockey, punching somebody repeatedly isn't a crime, unless the puncher smashes a few of the punchee's vertebrae. By that logic, attempted murder and attempted armed robbery shouldn't be crimes either. In the NHL, effort just isn't good enough. You have to produce results!
Since the sports establishment is not serious about punishing criminal behavior, I would suggest no penalty at all. Let the drunken low-lifes and the spoiled brats have at it, and allow natural selection to take its course.
Bill Kolter
Warsaw
via e-mail
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- Sports Thuggery
Sports Thuggery
Editor, Times-Union:Try this: The next time you're displeased with the service at a restaurant, toss a beer at your waiter.
Let's say your waiter then slugs you in the jaw.
As a result, the waiter get a few days off without pay, and you go home, looking forward to your next meal in the restaurant.
In the real world, this would never happen. In the real world, it's likely you and the waiter would be locked up and never allowed back in the restaurant.
But in the rarefied world of professional sports, thugs get slapped with extended vacations, and are welcomed back with no consequence other than the loss of pay for their time off. Since these athletes can afford to lose 80 percent of their salary and still be richer than you'll ever be, chances are they won't have to worry about putting gas in their Bentleys.
When Mike Tyson bit off Evander Holyfield's ear, he lost 10 percent of his $30 million purse. So he walked home with only $27 million and was banned from boxing for one year. "Here's $27 million, Mike. And for additional punishment, we're not going to allow anybody to punch you for a year." Ouch! Whose ear do I have to bite off to get that deal?
When Latrell Sprewell tried to kill his coach, P.J. Carlessimo, the initial penalty was a 10-day suspension. A week and a half. As a child, I was grounded longer than that for a bad report card. The public screamed bloody attempted murder, and the NBA voided the rest of his contract, a decision which was later reversed. Sprewell had no trouble finding another job, hired, apparently, by a team looking for an easy way to get rid of its coach. "If we fire the coach, we have to buy out his contract. But if Sprewell kills him ..."
Todd Bertuzzi will actually go to trial in January for cheap-shotting Steve Moore during a professional hockey game. Why did this particular incident result in a trial? Well, somebody actually got hurt. Apparently in hockey, punching somebody repeatedly isn't a crime, unless the puncher smashes a few of the punchee's vertebrae. By that logic, attempted murder and attempted armed robbery shouldn't be crimes either. In the NHL, effort just isn't good enough. You have to produce results!
Since the sports establishment is not serious about punishing criminal behavior, I would suggest no penalty at all. Let the drunken low-lifes and the spoiled brats have at it, and allow natural selection to take its course.
Bill Kolter
Warsaw
via e-mail
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