GQ magazine has put out a list of the worst people in sports.
Somehow the magazine has decided that public enemy #1 is hapless former Clippers owner Donald Sterling. The magazine has decided that Sterling is even worse than an accused murderer, a child molester, rapists, and domestic abusers.
The “25 Biggest Sleazebags in Sports” list penned by Drew Magary is an example of what many sports fans are beginning to feel is what is wrong with sports: too much political correctness and not enough sports.
No doubt everyone on the list is quite a sleazebag. But that Magary chose the aged Sterling as the “number one worst” says more about Magary than it says either about sports or Sterling.
Magary calls Sterling a “Horny Neanderthal,” “a Voltron of s#!+bags fused together,” and–wait for it–a “landlord.” Magary insists, “There is no introspection with Donald Sterling. There is no remorse. There is no shred of decency tucked inside of him that will engender some measure of sympathy.”
OK, well and good. But Sterling featured as the worst guy in sports?
In the number two spot sits former Patriots player Aaron Hernandez. This young man has been arrested and faces trial for three murders! Yet Hernandez ranks as the second worst guy in sports? A murderer not as bad as Sterling? A murderer better than a seemingly senile old man who latched on to a hot young woman and unleashed some ignorant, racially-tinged blather in the effort?
Also featured on Magary’s sleazebag list is an alleged serial sexual harasser (Isiah Thomas, number 4), a molester (Chad Curtis, number 5), an MMA fighter who almost beat his girlfriend to death (Jonathan Koppenhaver, aka War Machine, number 7), a drug abuser (Lance Armstrong, number 9), and Ray Rice, currently notorious for beating his wife unconscious in a New Jersey casino (number 12). The list overflows with others of a similar sleaze factor.
But are all these other sleazebags less egregious than Donald Sterling? Really? Magary thinks so.
Should Sterling be on the list? Sure. Donald Sterling certainly seems to be a racist in many respects. He certainly cheated on his wife, and, yes, he is probably a sleazy guy. But is he worse than murderers, child molesters, and woman beaters?
It’s only a surprise that Magary didn’t peg Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder in the number-two spot for refusing to change the name of his team–Snyder did appear on the list but as the 20th worst. Surely the PC code maintains that using the name “Redskins” is worse than being a murderer.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com