Bad sports, good sports: Lawrence Taylor accused of rape
How bad a guy is Lawrence Taylor? Over the years, the former NFL great has done a lot of bad things. Most of his documented problems have involved drugs, particularly cocaine. This time, though, he appears to have hurt someone other than himself. Taylor was arrested last week and charged with third-degree rape and patronizing a prostitute. The victim is a 16-year-old girl who ran away from home at fifteen.
The details of the story are pretty sordid. A man named Rasheed Davis apparently set up the meeting between Taylor and the girl. According to the documents filed, Davis had told Taylor that the girl was nineteen. That is certainly going to be a significant point when it comes to the case against Taylor. Regardless, the idea that Taylor had turned his life around after his earlier troubles appears to be a faulty one. If his 2009 arrest for leaving the scene of an accident didn’t prove that, this incident surely does.
Taylor was one of the greatest players in the history of professional football. His skills were spectacular, and he changed the game in a number of ways. I suppose that kind of talent and the adulation that comes with it must create a feeling of indestructibility in a person who possesses it. LT is hardly the first player to find himself on the wrong side of the law, and I don’t pretend to think he will be the last. These new charges, though, take him well beyond the kind of thing that people can easily blow off as simply self-destructive. Rape of a minor is about as serious as it gets. Whether or not he was told that she was nineteen is beside the point, really. It is time for him to be responsible for his own actions. The circus around this story is going to get much crazier as the details come out. Taylor will go to jail, and he deserves to be there.
Bad sports, continued:
2) Continuing the awful stories of the week, a member of the women’s lacrosse team at the University of Virginia was killed by a member of the men’s lacrosse team at the same school who was also her ex-boyfriend. Yeardley Love was 22.
3) On the lighter side of “bad sports,” Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Lastings Milledge found himself in an embarrassing situation on Friday after hitting what he thought was a grand slam. It turns out the ball hadn’t cleared the fence. Milledge, thinking it had gone out, was doing a slow trot around the bases when he found himself in a rundown between second and third bases. The fireworks that had been set off didn’t do him any favors either, as far as his confusion. Anyway, Milledge’s team still won the game, which is what matters.
Good sports:
1) In a strong show of disdain for the new controversial immigration laws passed in the state of Arizona, the Phoenix Suns wore special jerseys on Wednesday. The jerseys read “Los Suns” instead of the usual “Suns.” I am not usually a big fan of mixing politics and sports, but I thought this was great.
2) Back in March of last year, I wrote about a young Japanese girl named Eri Yoshida who had signed a contract to play professional baseball in Japan, the first female to do so. Yoshida, a knuckleballer, has now come to the U.S. and has signed with the Chico Outlaws, an independent minor league baseball team in California.
3) Before Sunday, the only thing I knew about Oakland Athletics pitcher Dallas Braden was that he made a big deal recently about Alex Rodriguez walking across the mound on his way back to first after a foul ball, breaking what Braden felt was one of those unwritten rules of baseball. I thought the whole thing was silly. Braden has now made a name for himself with something far more legitimate: he threw a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays. It’s the 19th perfect game in major league baseball history.
Bad Sports, Good Sports appears every Monday
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Alan, good post … thanks for sharing. The town where I live has a minor league franchise (the Midland Rockhounds) that is part of the A’s system. So, we had a chance to watch Dallas Braden in action. Good to see him pitching like that in ‘the bigs.’
A comment sorta-related to your post on Taylor … having to do with the business of blogging. At the bottom of your post is an ad from Amazon, offering a “Blue Jersey Lawrence Taylor” statue for sale … apparently picking-up on key words in your post.
I have been a fan of baseball for a long while and it was good to hear about another perfect game being pitched. Lawrence Taylor is irresponsible, a disgrace and no role model for kids. That was funny to hear about Milledge’s embarrassing situation.
Jeff – thanks! We’ll see what Dallas Braden’s future holds, but this was certainly a good start, as far as backing up his talk. Oh, and I am horrified at the LT jersey ad you saw!
Teresa – thanks for reading and for the comments. Keep coming back.