Are weapons a 21st century sports legacy?

When you think of gun related violence, would you ever think of professional athletes?

One demographic that routinely gets left off the list of registered firearm carriers is the one that contains professional athletes. You might say, ‘I don’t see the connection.’ Brace yourself; the culture of professional sports is about to be revealed to you in a way you’ve never seen it before.

More and more athletes have started carrying guns

The following are a few examples from the last decade of athletes playing in either the National Basketball Association (NBA) or National Football League (NFL) getting arrested for possession of illegal firearms and weapons related charges:

-                    Dionte Christmas, Philadelphia 76ers, 2009. Pulled over for erratic driving and subsequently arrested for possession of an illegal handgun.

Delonte West is one of the most recent examples of NBA players carrying guns

-                    Delonte West, Cleveland Cavaliers, 2009. Pulled over for erratic driving on his motorcycle. Arrested for having a loaded shotgun and two loaded handguns in a guitar case on his back.

-                    Plaxico Burress, New York Giants, 2008. Arrested after shooting himself in the leg with an illegal handgun that he was carrying in a nightclub.

-                    Rasual Butler, then of New Orleans Hornets, 2008. Arrested after flashing a loaded handgun outside a nightclub in Miami Beach.

-                    Tank Johnson, then of the Chicago Bears, 2006. Police officers arrested him after searching his home and discovering six illegal firearms including two assault rifles.

-                    Allen Iverson, then of the Philadelphia 76ers, 2002. Arrested after he stormed into his cousin’s house and threatened two men while looking for his wife.

It is at this point that you have to ask the question; “Are carrying those guns really necessary?” From an outsider’s perspective, the life of a professional athlete is as easy as it gets.

Most jobs just involve showing up at work, doing the appropriate tasks and heading home for the day. Professional athletes are in one of a handful of occupations where they actually have to practice to do their job. They punish and torture their bodies for the sake of their job. Life is not easy for the athletes, but the question is still, is it necessary for players to carry weapons?

Life for celebrities is not always safe and like it or not, many pro athletes are akin to movie stars and rock stars. While they may not have paparazzi following their every move, stalkers and super-fans abound.

In 2000, Paul Pierce, a member of the NBA’s Boston Celtics was attacked outside of a Boston area bar. He was stabbed 11 times in the face, neck, and back.

Paul Pierce's story might be one of the reasons athletes feel the need to carry protection

Mar. 17, 2009, Carl Landry of the Huston Rockets was shot in the leg while buying fast food in Houston.

In 2009, Antonio Burks of the Memphis Grizzlies was shot several times while being robbed at his home.

The stories go on and on. With all the fame and fortune comes a certain element of danger. And whether it is a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time (like a shady nightclub) or just minding your own business at home, many professional athletes in the last decade have been grievously injured by guns and other weapons in acts of violence.

That is one explanation as to why athletes so often have been caught carrying weapons. They feel like they are being threatened and react defensively as such. One must look no further than the previous examples to see why they feel their lives are threatened.

My second theory is much more observation based than fact based.

Over the last fifteen years, the essence of “hip-hop culture” has been creeping into professional sports. One needs not look any further than the numerous rap albums, tattoos, various drug addictions, and the street mentality of many professional football and basketball players.

Before I continue, I need to say that I’m not picking on the African-American athlete. Despite the fact that African-Americans are the vast majority in both the NBA and NFL, that doesn’t leave Caucasian males off the hook.

Chris Anderson is an example of a white athlete who succumbed to the pull of hip-hop culture

Matt Jones of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars and Chris Anderson of the Denver Nuggets both have been suspended in the last two years because of cocaine abuse. Both are white and heavily tattooed. So there is no racially motivated hostility here, just straight observation.

Shaquille O’Neal, a 7’1” center who has played for five NBA teams started the whole idea of rapper-athlete. He released his debut rap album, Shaq Diesel in 1993 and released four more albums in subsequent years. Stemming from this, other NBA players, Ron Artest, Kobe Bryant, Rasheed Wallace, Allen Iverson and many more have released rap albums in the last fifteen years.

Maybe the most publicized relationship between the two worlds is that of LeBron James of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and rapper Jay-Z. The two are close friends and during the 2008 playoffs, Jay-Z stood up for James after Washington Wizards guard DeShawn Stevenson was trash talking him in the media. Jay-Z wrote a song called “Blow the Whistle” that clearly mentioned and put down Stevenson. This only served to elevate the disagreement and culminated in the ejection of several players from the final game of the series.

This association with hip-hop culture has clearly not stopped with the trash talking and drug use, though.

Rapper T.I. recently was sentenced to two years in prison for gun possession.

Over the last six years, prominent rappers T.I., Lil’ Wayne, Cam’ron, The Game, Fabolous, Young Joc, Snoop Dogg have all been arrested and/or served jail time on firearms related charges.

So after all this evidence has been laid out, the question remains: “Are those really necessary?” Have athletes been brainwashed into accepting their roles in “hip-hop culture” and thinking that it is just part of the game that they carry weapons? Do they legitimately feel threatened and carry weapons for protection? Did the deaths of rappers Tupac and Biggie in the early 90’s spark the connection between “hip-hop culture” and the need to be protected at all times? These are all important questions that we may never know the answers to. All we know is what we see on the news ticker. More and more athletes are starting to carry guns and that is the disturbing fact.

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Posted by Matthew Robertson on Oct 27, 2009. Filed under Opinion, This Week's Edition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.