Note from the Author: Athletes have become targets in society. It’s a concept I started thinking about a lot back in January when I was assigned to write “The Big Idea” for our May issue. I wanted to find out why athletes were being targeted. So I hopped on the ‘net and found a story that sports agent Jack Bechta wrote on The National Football Post, a site about the inner workings of the NFL that he helps run. The post included an untold story about Green Bay Packers cornerback Al Harris and the night in 1999 when he was robbed at gunpoint. I found it interesting that this story—and many like it—have gone untold for years.
Yesterday, Houston Rockets forward Carl Landry’s story came out, too, albeit much more quickly. He was reportedly driving his SUV in downtown Houston late Monday night when he was bumped by a vehicle behind him. When he emerged from the truck to assess the damage, one of the men in the car behind him opened fire and gave chase as Landry ran. Fortunately, they fled the scene and Landry only sustained a flesh wound. He’ll only miss a few weeks of action. But it could have been much worse. Once again, an incident involving a pro athlete presents a glaring problem: Violence against athletes isn’t just a trend that’s going to go away overnight. It’s very real and something that the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL should take very seriously. I was glad the NBA spoke to me for my piece and explained that they are speaking to rookies more about gun safety and guns in general, but I still found that far too many people out there, including players, aren’t willing to open up and speak about the problem. Let’s hope stories like Carl Landry’s start to change that.
Here’s the piece as it appears in the May issue.
Al Harris never thought he would be a target. In 1997, the corner back was drafted by the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and relegated to the team’s practice squad. By 1998, he had been traded to the Philadelphia Eagles, but he was hardly a superstar. He was modest, rarely wore jewelry, drove a 1999 GMC Suburban and a late-1970s Cadillac Fleetwood.
“Back then, guys who got money legally didn’t get robbed,” says Harris, 34, now a Pro Bowler with the Green Bay Packers. “People respected you. But it’s different now. If you’re a young successful male, especially a young black male, you’re a target.”
Harris got his wake-up call in 1999. While staying at his brother’s home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., shortly after his first season with the Eagles, he hopped into his Cadillac to make a trip to the grocery store. Arriving home minutes later, he was confronted by a masked gunman who forced Harris into the house where another gunman was waiting.
The pair pushed him and several other guests to the floor, duct-taped their hands, feet, and mouths, and pressed a pistol to the back of Harris’ head before making off with a small amount of cash, a watch, and the Cadillac. “Before that, I’d never heard about any of my team- mates getting robbed,” says Harris, speaking publicly about the incident for the first time. He’s since gone through fire- arms training and is now licensed to carry a concealed weapon in Florida. “I never thought in a million years that would happen to me.”
Harris wasn’t the first professional athlete to get robbed—and he certainly won’t be the last—but his story sheds a light on professional sports’ dirty secret: Athletes have turned into targets, and they’re taking matters into their own hands.
“More athletes are carrying guns today,” says Harris’ agent Jack Bechta, who has been working with NFL players for more than two decades. “They have more to protect. The Sean Taylor incident scared a lot of players.”
Taylor was a Pro Bowl safety for the Washington Redskins before he was gunned down in his home in November 2007 in Palmetto Bay, Fla. A group of intruders broke into his house—thinking it was empty—and shot Taylor in the upper leg when they discovered him with his fiancée and child in a bedroom. Taylor had been criticized in ’05 after he was charged with felony aggravated assault with a firearm and two counts of misdemeanor battery for an altercation (he later pleaded no contest to the two lesser charges and received 18 months probation), but some wonder if he’d be alive today if he’d had a gun nearby to protect himself that night.
“Most people don’t understand what it’s like to live their reality,” says Jemele Hill, a columnist for ESPN.com who covered Taylor’s death, as well as the tragic drive-by murder of Denver Broncos corner back Darrent Williams in 2007. “We see a guy making $20 million and can’t fathom why he feels unsafe. Money doesn’t make you any safer. A bullet doesn’t stop to ask for a bank statement.” But for every Sean Taylor, there are literally dozens of professional athletes who have shot themselves in the foot by hanging around guns.
In October 2006, then Indiana Pacers forward Stephen Jackson was charged with a felony count of criminal recklessness, battery, and disorderly conduct for unloading a gun in the air during an altercation outside an Indianapolis strip club. NFL cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones was arrested in February 2007 at NBA All-Star weekend in Las Vegas after a member of his entourage allegedly shot and paralyzed a night manager at Minxx Gentlemen’s Club & Lounge. Minnesota Timberwolves guard Sebastian Telfair was arrested in New York in April 2007 and charged with felony possession of a weapon— roughly six months after being robbed of a $50,000 chain outside an NYC restaurant.
Jackson, Jones, and Telfair all pleaded guilty and received probation. Most recently, New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress was arrested in November 2008 after he accidentally fired an unlicensed handgun into his own thigh at a nightclub in New York City. He has since been charged with illegal weapons possession and missed the chance to help the Giants make another Super Bowl. As of press time, the case is pending.
Critics have fired back. “What is going on with these players to make them think that walking into a club with a .40 caliber Glock pistol makes them either tough or makes them a part of the rap world?” former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason asked his NYC- based WFAN (660 AM) radio show in December. “Some of these guys might not need a gun if they put themselves in better situations,” says Hill. “When you’re wealthy, you can’t go back to those clubs you used to be in when you were broke. I understand not wanting to make it seem like money has changed you. But the truth is, it does.”
It’s only natural for athletes to protect themselves, their families, and the things that belong to them. They hear stories involving teammates—stories that never make it beyond locker-room walls. Burress was likely aware that teammate Steve Smith was robbed at gunpoint outside his home—three days before Burress sustained his self-inflicted gunshot wound on November 29.
Smith’s robbery wasn’t reported by the New York Post until two days after the Burress shooting. “I don’t condone carrying a gun that’s not registered,” says Harris, “but you can’t fault a guy for having a gun when one of his teammates just got robbed. People can say this or that, but yo, Steve Smith could have died. He could’ve been killed.”
The incidents have forced the professional sports leagues, namely the NFL and NBA, to breathe new life into discussions surrounding guns and players, specifically rookies. Harris was part of the inaugural NFL rookie symposium in 1997. Coincidentally, he attended with former Carolina Panthers wide receiver Rae Carruth, who is now in prison serving a 20-year sentence for the horrific murder of his pregnant girlfriend in 1999. But, he says, guns weren’t a priority back then.
“With all the stuff that’s happened, the NFL will respond as far as teaching younger players about gun safety,” Harris says. The NBA is taking a similar approach. While NBA Commissioner David Stern has publicly urged players to stay away from guns, the league has implemented workshops about firearms into its Rookie Transition Program, which every first-year player is required to attend.
“We definitely do not encourage our players to carry guns,” says Mike Bantom, who has served as the NBA’s senior vice president of player development for 10 years. “But we educate our players about gun safety and laws. We also continue to encourage players to think intelligently about security, and not think that owning a gun will make you more secure.”
“Guys today are definitely more aware about guns,” says Harris. “But they [also] realize it doesn’t have to be a gun. It can be a Taser, some Mace, whatever. Really, it’s just important to know that you need to protect yourself.”
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