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Reasons abound for armed athletes
By JEFF MILLER and JASON COLE
Miami Herald
MIAMI - He was the first Miami Dolphin approached only because he was the first Dolphin to enter the locker room. David Bowens was not specifically chosen to answer the question.
So, have you ever been, well, shot?
``I was 12,'' Bowens said, not hesitating. ``Wrong place, wrong time. The guys jumped out of a van with shotguns. I got hit in the left ankle. There was so much adrenaline I just kept running. I remember hearing things ricocheting off the concrete around me. I didn't even know what a shell was at the time.''
This was in Detroit, during, appropriately, a pre-Halloween tradition known as Devil's Night. Bowens still has a small scar and a large aversion to firearms, even though, he said, his grandfather, father and mother each owned guns when he was growing up.
One of Bowens' friends in college was shot to death, and another more recently was paralyzed in a shooting.
Again, he was the first Dolphin asked this unusual question. Again, he didn't hesitate answering yes.
Games and guns. Athletes and arsenals. The NBA franchise in Washington can change its nickname, but they can't rid sports of all the bullets.
University of Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy is shot and killed, and an ex-teammate is arrested in the incident. Former NBA player Jayson Williams awaits trial in the shooting death of a limousine driver. Nolan Richardson III resigns as basketball coach at Tennessee State after bringing a gun to the gym following an argument with one of his assistants.
And for their first two games, the Pittsburgh Steelers officially list linebacker Joey Porter's injury as (thigh). But the words rolling across the bottom of the TV screen on ESPN read (gunshot wound).
``You have a lot of young guys with a lot of money,'' Dolphins guard Jamie Nails said. ``I have guns, sure. I like shooting. There's a sense of power in it. It feels real nice pulling that trigger. I don't know if it's the noise or just that you have a weapon in your hands, but there's a real rush in it.
``Don't make it sound like I'm some psychotic dude walking around shooting people. I'm a hunter. I've been around guns all my life. I'm from the country in Georgia, and everybody in the country has guns. I was exposed to them at an early age. You need to make that clear. I respect guns and what they can do and what I can do with one in my hands. Make that clear, please.''
They have them for hunting, for protection and as a hobby. The Dolphins, presumably like all NFL teams and all sports teams for that matter, are armed. Defensive end Jay Williams estimated 40 to 60 percent of football players own guns. He also estimated he is one of the few with a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
``I don't believe in an athlete having a gun and not knowing how to use it, or not going through the proper channels of having it,'' Williams said.
There's nothing definitive that says guns are a bigger problem in sports than in general society. As the sexual assault trial of Kobe Bryant draws closer, perspective most certainly is tilted by the headlines.
A few months ago, however, sociologist Harry Edwards noted in The Chicago Tribune, ``A disproportionate percentage of athletes grew up in environments where guns exist,'' including rural areas where hunting is popular and in crime-ridden inner-cities. The Tribune also added that it was former Dolphin Bryan Cox who once said, ``Where I'm from, in East St. Louis, Ill., a gun was like a credit card.''
There also is the machismo factor, which can be significant in sports. Guns and manhood have been linked since the days of cowboys and Indians, which easily predate these days of Cowboys and Redskins.
There can be something sexy about guns, too, - an eerie sort of passion produced only by something as cold and steely as a pistol. Packing heat suggests status, and if that status is only symbolic, so what? Hummers are mostly packaging, as well, but they never have been more popular among athletes.
Williams grew up around guns and law enforcement. His father, James, was a policeman for 28 years. His sister, Victoria, is a cop in Washington.
He called himself a ``gun enthusiast,'' but Williams also described himself as a target, not an uncommon feeling among professional athletes who can be preyed upon - even if it doesn't involve guns - by their own agents and relatives, let alone strangers.
``Anybody who is making money is a target,'' Williams said. ``There's people out there who don't want to work hard to get what I have. They'd rather go out there and get it easy. Whether you're an athlete or a rich businessman, people want to steal what you have.''
So Williams practices his shooting with a dedication similar to the one he has for practicing his football. He goes to gun ranges. He works on reacting to situations that could occur at night as his family sleeps. He prepares for sneak attacks, such as drive-by shootings, by taking the ammunition out of his gun and gauging his reflex response.
``My wife will tell you I work on it,'' Williams said. ``I'm prepared if somebody comes up on me.''
As he spoke, he offered proof of this practice, pretending to have a gun on his right side while dealing with a possible threat from his left.
``I'm going to be prepared, you have to be,'' Williams said. ``I'm going to protect myself, and I'm going to protect my family. I'm all for law enforcement. But they're usually after the fact. What can they do about a home invasion? They can't see that coming.''
Teammate Dario Romero also grew up around firearms, his family full of hunters. But that was in Spokane, Wash. Romero didn't own a handgun until six months ago, when the crime in South Florida and the pending arrival of his first child convinced him he needed better protection.
So he purchased a .40-caliber pistol and educated his wife, Rebecca, on the specifics of handling it.
``If she wasn't comfortable with it, I never would have bought a gun,'' Romero said. ``I told her to not touch it unless she absolutely has to. It's just extra security for her.''
As Romero was talking, a song playing on a portable stereo in another player's locker was all about shootings and drive-bys and murder. Just like in real life, there's a gun culture in sports, that culture so intertwined it can serve as a soundtrack.
It also is so everyday that a player such as the Steelers' Porter, an All-Pro and team co-MVP, can be sidelined by a bullet, and his teammates, though expressing surprise, react like they would had he separated his shoulder.
Nick Bierbrodt began this baseball season in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' rotation, pitching with one bullet in his liver and another ``just floating around in there somewhere,'' the result of an incident last year.
Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Jolbert Cabrera missed time a year ago after being shot during a carjacking. Houston Astros right fielder Richard Hidalgo was shot in a similar altercation during the offseason.
Athlete-related personalities who have faced gun-related charges include every personality from Allen Iverson to Bobby Knight, Scottie Pippen to Barry Switzer, Steve McNair to Kazunari Sasaki, a Japanese cross-country ski coach who pointed an unloaded rifle at a police officer during the last Winter Olympics.
There also are athletes such as Karl Malone, whose passion for firearms is such that he once was a spokesman for the National Rifle Association.
Jay Williams hasn't reached that point, but he strongly advocates responsible gun use. He has taken classes in the different states in which he has played, learning things like what is acceptable force in response to a threat. He said he talks to teammates regularly about using guns properly, and he worries about what he sees among his fellow athletes.
Basketball player Jayson Williams is a prime example. The Dolphins' Jay Williams saw trouble coming when Jayson was featured in an episode of MTV Cribs. He was taped shooting skeet on his estate. He was wielding a rifle with one arm at times, showboating for the camera.
``He was so irresponsible on that,'' Williams said. ``When I heard what happened, I put my head down. I was saddened, but I wasn't surprised.''
Not today.
Not in sports.
Not anymore.
Reasons abound for armed athletes
By JEFF MILLER and JASON COLE
Miami Herald
MIAMI - He was the first Miami Dolphin approached only because he was the first Dolphin to enter the locker room. David Bowens was not specifically chosen to answer the question.
So, have you ever been, well, shot?
``I was 12,'' Bowens said, not hesitating. ``Wrong place, wrong time. The guys jumped out of a van with shotguns. I got hit in the left ankle. There was so much adrenaline I just kept running. I remember hearing things ricocheting off the concrete around me. I didn't even know what a shell was at the time.''
This was in Detroit, during, appropriately, a pre-Halloween tradition known as Devil's Night. Bowens still has a small scar and a large aversion to firearms, even though, he said, his grandfather, father and mother each owned guns when he was growing up.
One of Bowens' friends in college was shot to death, and another more recently was paralyzed in a shooting.
Again, he was the first Dolphin asked this unusual question. Again, he didn't hesitate answering yes.
Games and guns. Athletes and arsenals. The NBA franchise in Washington can change its nickname, but they can't rid sports of all the bullets.
University of Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy is shot and killed, and an ex-teammate is arrested in the incident. Former NBA player Jayson Williams awaits trial in the shooting death of a limousine driver. Nolan Richardson III resigns as basketball coach at Tennessee State after bringing a gun to the gym following an argument with one of his assistants.
And for their first two games, the Pittsburgh Steelers officially list linebacker Joey Porter's injury as (thigh). But the words rolling across the bottom of the TV screen on ESPN read (gunshot wound).
``You have a lot of young guys with a lot of money,'' Dolphins guard Jamie Nails said. ``I have guns, sure. I like shooting. There's a sense of power in it. It feels real nice pulling that trigger. I don't know if it's the noise or just that you have a weapon in your hands, but there's a real rush in it.
``Don't make it sound like I'm some psychotic dude walking around shooting people. I'm a hunter. I've been around guns all my life. I'm from the country in Georgia, and everybody in the country has guns. I was exposed to them at an early age. You need to make that clear. I respect guns and what they can do and what I can do with one in my hands. Make that clear, please.''
They have them for hunting, for protection and as a hobby. The Dolphins, presumably like all NFL teams and all sports teams for that matter, are armed. Defensive end Jay Williams estimated 40 to 60 percent of football players own guns. He also estimated he is one of the few with a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
``I don't believe in an athlete having a gun and not knowing how to use it, or not going through the proper channels of having it,'' Williams said.
There's nothing definitive that says guns are a bigger problem in sports than in general society. As the sexual assault trial of Kobe Bryant draws closer, perspective most certainly is tilted by the headlines.
A few months ago, however, sociologist Harry Edwards noted in The Chicago Tribune, ``A disproportionate percentage of athletes grew up in environments where guns exist,'' including rural areas where hunting is popular and in crime-ridden inner-cities. The Tribune also added that it was former Dolphin Bryan Cox who once said, ``Where I'm from, in East St. Louis, Ill., a gun was like a credit card.''
There also is the machismo factor, which can be significant in sports. Guns and manhood have been linked since the days of cowboys and Indians, which easily predate these days of Cowboys and Redskins.
There can be something sexy about guns, too, - an eerie sort of passion produced only by something as cold and steely as a pistol. Packing heat suggests status, and if that status is only symbolic, so what? Hummers are mostly packaging, as well, but they never have been more popular among athletes.
Williams grew up around guns and law enforcement. His father, James, was a policeman for 28 years. His sister, Victoria, is a cop in Washington.
He called himself a ``gun enthusiast,'' but Williams also described himself as a target, not an uncommon feeling among professional athletes who can be preyed upon - even if it doesn't involve guns - by their own agents and relatives, let alone strangers.
``Anybody who is making money is a target,'' Williams said. ``There's people out there who don't want to work hard to get what I have. They'd rather go out there and get it easy. Whether you're an athlete or a rich businessman, people want to steal what you have.''
So Williams practices his shooting with a dedication similar to the one he has for practicing his football. He goes to gun ranges. He works on reacting to situations that could occur at night as his family sleeps. He prepares for sneak attacks, such as drive-by shootings, by taking the ammunition out of his gun and gauging his reflex response.
``My wife will tell you I work on it,'' Williams said. ``I'm prepared if somebody comes up on me.''
As he spoke, he offered proof of this practice, pretending to have a gun on his right side while dealing with a possible threat from his left.
``I'm going to be prepared, you have to be,'' Williams said. ``I'm going to protect myself, and I'm going to protect my family. I'm all for law enforcement. But they're usually after the fact. What can they do about a home invasion? They can't see that coming.''
Teammate Dario Romero also grew up around firearms, his family full of hunters. But that was in Spokane, Wash. Romero didn't own a handgun until six months ago, when the crime in South Florida and the pending arrival of his first child convinced him he needed better protection.
So he purchased a .40-caliber pistol and educated his wife, Rebecca, on the specifics of handling it.
``If she wasn't comfortable with it, I never would have bought a gun,'' Romero said. ``I told her to not touch it unless she absolutely has to. It's just extra security for her.''
As Romero was talking, a song playing on a portable stereo in another player's locker was all about shootings and drive-bys and murder. Just like in real life, there's a gun culture in sports, that culture so intertwined it can serve as a soundtrack.
It also is so everyday that a player such as the Steelers' Porter, an All-Pro and team co-MVP, can be sidelined by a bullet, and his teammates, though expressing surprise, react like they would had he separated his shoulder.
Nick Bierbrodt began this baseball season in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' rotation, pitching with one bullet in his liver and another ``just floating around in there somewhere,'' the result of an incident last year.
Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Jolbert Cabrera missed time a year ago after being shot during a carjacking. Houston Astros right fielder Richard Hidalgo was shot in a similar altercation during the offseason.
Athlete-related personalities who have faced gun-related charges include every personality from Allen Iverson to Bobby Knight, Scottie Pippen to Barry Switzer, Steve McNair to Kazunari Sasaki, a Japanese cross-country ski coach who pointed an unloaded rifle at a police officer during the last Winter Olympics.
There also are athletes such as Karl Malone, whose passion for firearms is such that he once was a spokesman for the National Rifle Association.
Jay Williams hasn't reached that point, but he strongly advocates responsible gun use. He has taken classes in the different states in which he has played, learning things like what is acceptable force in response to a threat. He said he talks to teammates regularly about using guns properly, and he worries about what he sees among his fellow athletes.
Basketball player Jayson Williams is a prime example. The Dolphins' Jay Williams saw trouble coming when Jayson was featured in an episode of MTV Cribs. He was taped shooting skeet on his estate. He was wielding a rifle with one arm at times, showboating for the camera.
``He was so irresponsible on that,'' Williams said. ``When I heard what happened, I put my head down. I was saddened, but I wasn't surprised.''
Not today.
Not in sports.
Not anymore.
