Hitting Below the Belt . . . Literally
| 20
|
Everything in the sports world these days seems to be a variation on the same theme:
- A player is injured, may not play this week/weekend
- A college athlete violated the NCAA rules and will be made to suffer
- Some college team has been ranked in something by someone
- Some team is sooooo good
- Another team is sooooo bad
- An NFL player is being suspended and/or is returning from a suspension
- An athlete tested positive for a banned substance and has now or will be suspended
- An athlete signs a multi-million dollar contract to re-join the team
- Where is Kobe going to be traded?
You get the deal.
And then, there's a story that makes you go what in the h-e-double hockey sticks has this world come to? (Otherwise known as "what the _____ was s/he thinking?")
From the land of Colorado comes that story. Former high school basketball coach Gregory Lynn Burr is on trial for hitting players in the groin area with various objects, including basketballs, tennis balls, clipboards, among other things, perhaps. He's being charged with sexual assault, but the judge has emphasized to jurors that the conduct is related to physical abuse, not sexual gratification.
Incredibly, one student had to have surgery after Burr's assaults. Gee whiz. He's also being accused of showing them porn at his house, and of dousing them with water and then exposing them to cold weather. Sounds like someone forgot to tell him that he's not their teammate, he's their coach.
I really hope that this guy has some other skill because if he loses this case, I can't see too many places beating down his door to hire him. The most he can hope for is that time makes everyone forget. I think he'll probably need to leave Colorado, at the least.
I don't know personally, but I have been told that hits to the groin are "breathtaking." I can't imagine that a man hitting another man in the groin with such force that it requires surgery. I thought this was just a case of over-sensitive (pun accidental) litigation until I heard the surgery bit. That's ludicrous.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that jury room.
No pun intended.
(Cross-published at Pleats 'n Cleats)
