We’re not the only country in the world with dysfunctional athletes, but we do have the worst offenders.
This past week a story has emerged that Ashley Cole, a defender for Chelsea Football Club, shot a 21-year-old intern with a .22 caliber air rifle during practice.
Not long after, English rugby player Danni Cipriani was kicked out of a nightclub for stealing a bottle of vodka, despite having more than enough money to pay for it.
And the soccer world is in an uproar after a Colombian soccer player kicked a live owl, which was serving as a mascot and laying injured on the field, off the playing surface, killing it.
At the same time, however, no one was involved in a strip club shooting. And stealing a bottle of vodka isn’t as bad as some of the other “nightclub incidents” that have occurred in American sports in the past year.
I’m not saying these things don’t happen in other countries, because they do. Take John Terry, for example, who last year was caught having an affair with the wife of a fellow England teammate.
It just seems like when it comes to bad athlete behavior, American sports have the edge.
Reach the soccer hooligan at egrasser@asu.edu
