Ben Rapersberger, Sext Favre, Tiger Wood … oops forgot the s, and Lawrence “she told me she was 19” Taylor; just a few high- profile athletes who have been marred by scandal in the sports world’s sexually charged recent past.
Five Superbowl championships and 128 professional golf titles (including 14 major championships) have been collected amongst this group of top tier athletes.
Each one of these men was once atop their respective sports’ world; only to have fallen from grace, breaking the hearts of youth and adult sports fans alike.
Admittedly, some transgressions have been more severe than others. Some have chosen the right path back to decency; others are still on that path. With Roethlisberger, Favre and Woods their offenses came completely unexpectedly.
Unfortunately, Taylor’s indictment on statutory rape charges in New York last Summer came as little surprise to most, even though the former All-Pro linebacker was starting to clean-up his act after years of drug addiction and partying.
The problem with these incidents is the minimal crucifixion that each received; most notably Taylor’s reduction of charge to two misdemeanors as opposed to felony third-degree statutory rape.
His crime went generally under the radar with little outrage over his puny sentence of six years probation and sex offender registration.
I have yet to hear any chastising of any of these men aside from opposing fans using it as firepower for trash talk and defamation often accompanied by chauvinist slurs. I wonder why professional athletes receive a “get out of jail free card” (literally for LT) and manage to escape these embarrassing situations relatively unscathed.
Roethlisberger, though acquitted from rape charges in Georgia, received a mere six-game suspension from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell while Favre faced no disciplinary action whatsoever.
The only athlete who has truly faced the music of these four is Tiger Woods, probably because his actions came with no legal repercussion anyway (aside from a $100 million settlement following his divorce in August).
Even the New York Jets pestering of a female sideline reporter from the beginning of the 2010 season was followed up by a simple apology to the victim. These incidents are not native to the NFL (and certainly not the PGA Tour), they occur all across professional and amateur athletics.
Is it our patriarchal society that enables these athletes to assume a “larger-than-life” persona leading them to believe that they are invincible?
Clearly this situation is much bigger than this writer can fathom but it starts on an interpersonal level.
If our society ceased the glorification of these figures and improved the overall treatment of women then perhaps we can avoid this.
These faults do not need to be taboo topics; it all starts with a conversation.
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