Mike Bianchi: Clearly, it takes TMZ to get leaders to lead
“A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men.”
That famous line was written by Stephen King, the renowned author of twisted horror novels. However, it is a passage much more befitting of modern American sports writing, where the plot line too often focuses upon a bunch of cowards running our sports leagues like the pandering politicians who run our country. They follow the masses instead of leading them.
How is it that perhaps the three biggest sports scandals of the past year – Donald Sterling’s racist rant to his mistress, Ray Rice’s vicious blow to his fiancee and the sexual-assault allegations against Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston – involved so-called leaders who were forced into making decisions based on a TMZ-fueled feeding frenzy rather than their own sound judgment?
The Tallahassee Police Department didn’t turn over its shoddy investigation of rape allegations against Winston to the State Attorney’s office until TMZ requested the incident report and later reported Winston to be a suspect.
State Attorney Willie Meggs almost immediately criticized TPD for its inept investigation and for taking nearly a year to share its findings with prosecutors. The U.S. Department of Education then launched its own probe into how FSU itself handled the entire situation. And through it all, high-ranking FSU officials and the police chief in Tallahassee remained virtually invisible.
Where’s the leadership?
Then there’s the NBA, which has known for years that Donald Sterling was a racist. The U.S. Department of Justice sued Sterling – a real-estate developer and slumlord – way back in 2006 for housing discrimination after he said, “Black tenants smell and attract vermin.”
In 2009, Sterling paid nearly $3 million in fines for what the Justice Department said was discrimination against blacks, Hispanics and families with children in his rental properties. Then, of course, there was the discrimination lawsuit against Sterling in 2009 filed by ex-Clippers general manager Elgin Baylor, who said Sterling had a “plantation mentality.”
Former NBA commissioner David Stern and his right-hand man – current commissioner Adam Silver – did absolutely nothing. That is until TMZ aired an audio tape of Sterling’s gold-digging mistress wheedling the doddering old fool into a racist diatribe. A public outcry ensued and only then did the NBA act.
Where’s the leadership?
The NFL and the Baltimore Ravens should have swiftly and harshly penalized Ray Rice for battering his fiancee, but commissioner Roger Goodell, in all his misogynistic arrogance, insulted abused women everywhere by giving Rice an obscenely light two-game slap on the wrist.
It was only after TMZ aired the horrific video of Rice brutally cold-cocking his girlfriend that Goodell suspended Rice indefinitely and the Ravens cut him altogether. The NFL has been sweeping its battered women under the rug for years and only now – in response to public outrage – has the league finally decided to do something.
Where’s the leadership?
Sadly, only TMZ really knows for sure.