Hearing an ugly side to athletes.(problem of bigotry in professional sports)(Brief Article)

Where are we, a European soccer stadium? What is this madness around us, some sort of sporting apocalypse, or maybe the movie Rollerball coming hauntingly to life? Here we thought these games involved a team against another team, an athlete against another athlete, a city against another city.

Not so. The new competition pits the paying customers against the athletes, an increasingly ugly battle waged almost daily, with so many slurs and objects being hurled that a nationwide warning seems necessary.

Duck!

If the crossfire continues, moats and shock fences might be next. Whether the problem is backlash over outrageous salaries, the inevitable onset of British-type hooliganism or just a few nut cases ruining the fun for everyone, something freaky is in the air. In recent days alone, we have seen everything from Metrodome rowdies heaving golf balls and metal strips at Chuck Knoblauch to a San Diego fan engaging in a heated argument with Dodgers general manager Kevin Malone, an incident that cost Malone his job. And those were merely the minor incidents. More troubling are ones that occur when an athlete, angered by taunting fans, takes the low road and resorts to narrow-minded slurs. Pathetically, such hatred is now commonplace.

Welcome to the latest sports menace. It's called the Bigot Club, a sick, little society of loosely educated athletes who disparage homosexuals, Jews, Asian-Americans, African-Americans, unwed mothers and anyone else they choose. It's a wicked game of one-upmanship, showdowns between mouthy fans who think they're entitled to vent and arrogant athletes who think they're above any negative vibes. How many jock-wearing ignorami have made abject fools of themselves? I've lost track.

Starting with John Rocker and continuing of late with Allen Iverson, Jason Williams, Julian Tavarez and Charlie Ward, the rash of irresponsible rants is out of control. Fly the freedom-of-speech flag if you must, but it wilts in a consumer setting. The last thing the sports industry needs, with so many fans already disgusted and turned off, are words from athletes insulting religion, color, creed and sexual orientation. Granted, some fans are jerks and need to adhere to a conduct code, if not spend a month in a cell. But that doesn't begin to justify why an athlete, usually pampered from birth, would respond with the most vicious trash-talk imaginable.

To protect their businesses, league commissioners have to be proactive in laying down punishment. Yet, too often they are lax. The most recent violator was Tavarez, the Chicago Cubs pitcher, who slammed San Francisco fans as "faggots" after they booed him. But baseball boss Bud Selig, whose heavy-handed stance in the Rocker saga represented some of his ...