It seems like every week there is a new sex scandal or incident of infidelity filling up the news.

Much to my dislike, more and more of these scandals have been popping up in professional sports over the last few years.

I will never understand why people in the spotlight think they will get away with whatever scandalous affairs they are having.

It doesn’t necessarily surprise me sex scandals are becoming more common in professional sports, but it does surprise me at how stupid and irresponsible some of professional sports’ biggest stars have acted as of late.

It would be nearly impossible for me to name every single professional athlete who has ever been accused of cheating — let alone who have engaged in scandalous activities with women.

However, I would like to highlight a few athletes who made the national headlines with their raunchy sex scandals.

Brett Favre

This brings me to Brett Favre, who, in my opinion, is one of the greatest quarterbacks to play in the National Football League.

We loved him with the Packers, wore Wrangler jeans because he made them look cool and supported him through retirements, non-retirements, team changes and sympathized with him when his wife battled breast cancer.

On Dec. 29, 2010, the NFL announced it had fined Favre $50,000 for failing to be forthright regarding sending inappropriate text messages and photos of his genitals without the consent of Jenn Sterger, an in-house sideline reporter for the New York Jets organization.

I would have laughed if someone told me one day Brett Favre would be in the middle of a “sexting” scandal.

Ben Roethlisberger

Another quarterback making headlines lately has been Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

At the age of 28, “Big Ben” has already won two Super Bowl championships and just took the Steelers back to the Super Bowl this year only to lose to the Green Bay Packers.

In 2008, Roethlisberger was accused of raping a woman in a Lake Tahoe hotel, but he strongly denied the allegations made by the woman and claimed counter damages in the lawsuit made against him.

I am going to admit for some reason I stuck by “Big Ben’s” side and didn’t believe the allegations were true. However, my status on the situation changed dramatically when he was accused for the second time of sexual assault in 2010 by a 20-year-old woman in Milledgeville, Ga.

Roethlisberger was accused of raping this woman in the bathroom of a Georgia bar.

Neither allegation
resulted in charges being filed, but Roethlisberger was suspended for six games, which was reduced to four games under the NFL’s personal conduct policy for the start of the 2010 season.

Roethlisberger’s reputation was damaged to say the least, but he still managed to get to the 2010 Super Bowl.

Lawrence Taylor

Continuing on with the football theme, Lawrence Taylor, NFL Hall of Fame linebacker, was arrested May 6, 2010, for allegedly raping a 16-year-old in New York.

On Jan. 13, Taylor, who led the New York Giants to two Super Bowl wins in 1987 and 1991, plead guilty to sexual misconduct and patronizing a prostitute, misdemeanor charges that produce no jail time but require him to register as a sex offender, as well as six years’ probation.

It was so sad to watch another football great not only be accused of rape but plead guilty to it.

Kobe Bryant

Another superstar athlete to be accused of rape was Kobe Bryant, five-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers.

In 2003, Bryant was accused of sexually assaulting a Colorado hotel employee.

Bryant admitted having an adulterous sexual encounter with the accuser, but he denied the sexual assault claim at a press conference with his wife, Vanessa Bryant, by his side.

The case was dropped in September 2004 because the accuser refused to testify against Bryant. He continued his winning ways with the Lakers, and his wife received an 8-carat purple diamond ring worth about $4 million.

Tiger Woods

Last but certainly not least, there can not be a discussion concerning infidelity and sex scandal without mentioning Tiger Woods.

When someone would say the name Tiger Woods, I thought of one thing — golf. Now, I think of adultery and mistresses.

In 2009, Woods’ many adulterous hook-ups with many different mistresses were exposed for everyone to see in almost every news media outlet out there.

I honestly couldn’t tell you how many mistresses there were
because so many women came forward. It’s very sad yet another professional athlete made bad decisions and those decisions changed his life.

Woods was then faced with divorce, loss of endorsements and a major hit to his reputation. It is safe to say all of these athletes have been and many are still successful today in their profession.

The question I would want to ask these men is if whether or not their sexual affairs were worth losing the respect and admiration of their fans and their reputations.

I’m sure the money, championship rings and winning makes living in the negative spotlight a little easier, but was it worth losing your credibility over?

By NIKOLETTE

LANGDON

Sports Editor

nlangdon@umail.iu.edu