A majority of them are millionaires, held up misguidedly in too many cases as role models simply because they can play a sport on the highest level and get to live the dream life most of us dreamed about as boys.
And time and again, fame and fortune for them becomes shame and misfortune of their own making, and they are remembered only for starring roles in Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous.
Plaxico Burress caught the winning touchdown pass from Eli Manning at the end of Super Bowl XLII, but his claim to fame forever will be the mindless night he carried a Glock into a Manhattan hotspot called the Latin Quarter and accidentally shot himself in the leg, shooting the Giants’ 2008 season to hell and winding up serving 20 months at the Oneida Correctional Facility in Rome, N.Y., for attempted criminal possession of a weapon.
So here was Plaxico Burress talking about Raymond Felton Tuesday on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines”:
“Maybe he just needs to be smarter and more knowledgeable of the law.”
You would think Felton, suddenly the tortured face of the sinkhole that is the New York Knicks, would have learned about this state’s zero tolerance gun laws by now, but some of them never learn.
You would think every athlete in every sport, especially in this city, this state, would have been scared straight by Burress ruining what was left of his career and missing the birth of his daughter.
The major price our millionaire pros and cons pay is a loss of privacy that ominously can morph into a paranoia, leading them to seek the security of a gun when a bodyguard is the far more sensible option, unless you grew up a fan of Jesse James.
It is inevitably a sad tale when we are reminded our “heroes” need protection from themselves more than they need protection from anyone else.
Felton’s sagging career is the least of his woes now that he has been charged with one count of felony possession of a firearm and an additional misdemeanor and could face a maximum of seven years behind bars after his estranged wife handed police a Belgian-made pistol she claimed belonged to him.
This is from a 2006 ESPN.com story:
In September 2000, the Boston Celtics’ Paul Pierce survived a brutal multiple stabbing at a Boston nightclub. Pierce is now licensed to carry a concealed weapon, but leaves his gun at home and hires a bodyguard when he goes out. Still, Pierce considers himself a target.
“Because I’m recognized from TV, people want what I have,” Pierce said. “You have to be careful because people out there in the world are very envious of your life.”
Gun ownership is hardly a problem exclusive to the NBA. A number of NFL players turned in their guns after Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, and then himself. The guns Belcher used were legally registered to him.
A 2012 USA Today article detailed that roughly three quarters of NFL players owned guns. Former Redskins safety Sean Taylor was murdered in a home invasion in Miami in 2007.
“If Sean had a gun, he’s probably alive today,” Steelers safety Ryan Clark told USA Today. “I choose not to own one. But guys are targets and they have their families and they have guns in their homes, they want to protect themselves and they have the right to. The law gives them the right to.”
I got to know Raymond Felton a bit and never considered him a bad guy. Or a stupid guy. Apparently I didn’t know him well enough. Apparently neither did the Knicks. Raymond Felton, like Plaxico Burress, is not above the law. Just because his gun didn’t go off doesn’t mean his career isn’t shot to hell, too.