Our fallen idols.(scandals and professional athletes)(Brief Article)

From here on, I will perceive Patrick Ewing not as a basketball warrior but as the fool who let two dancers perform oral sex on him while a dub owner watched with a flashlight. From here on, I will perceive Andruw Jones not as one of baseball's gifted stars but as the blockhead who had sexual intercourse with two dancers from the same club while the owner watched.

Never underestimate the stupidity of our athletes. Deluded by wealth and celebrity, many assume it's part of their privileged existence to receive comped sex in a strip joint. They never give the slightest thought to what might lurk behind the favors--say, an organized crime family that would love to place a high-profile sports figure in a compromising position to extort a variety of returned favors.

Such as? Oh, a large payment to make sure the wife and kids don't find out, not to mention the public or Madison Avenue's image-makers. If not that, then maybe help in fixing a game. There is no evidence yet of blackmail being a motive in the Gold Club case, which has exposed the sleazy lives of jockdom's rich and famous in an Atlanta courtroom. But knowing that prosecutors have linked the club to New York's Gambino crime family, antennae are up like never before. At stake is the integrity of sports and the moral vulnerabilities of millionaire athletes, issues that definitely should occupy fans' minds.

"What I tell players is that if you're going to be comped, what's happening is that someone has just started a scorebook on you" says Kevin Hallinan, security chief for Major League Baseball. "Certainly, what they are suggesting went on in the Gold Club is very, very unattractive to professional sports."

Consider the court proceedings a loud, urgent wake-up call for the lap-dance set. If the daily testimony makes for interesting reading, it also should remind athletes how easily they can lose idol status if their nocturnal misadventures sink too far into the gutter. To anybody even named in the Gold Club case, best of luck landing another major endorsement. Think Ewing is the least bit marketable? Think those mom-and-son soup commercials still work for Terrell Davis after dancer Jana Pelnis admitted under oath she was paid by the club to have sex ...