Ah yes, Rae Carruth. I'd have to do some looking, but I don't recall the league jumping on him until they were pushed either, though.

MySpace isn't toooooo bad. Its rep is much worse than the actuality of it, I think. (My gods, it's the Starla of the internets!) It all depends on who you've friended

This is true. All my friends are people I know or "know"

CNN has some additional quotes from the NAACP guy:

White also said he didn't understand the uproar over dogfighting, when hunting deer and other animals is perfectly acceptable.

[link]

Nutty! Is that "tu quoque"? Have I learned the correct Latin at your knee?

White also said he didn't understand the uproar over dogfighting, when hunting deer and other animals is perfectly acceptable.

While I like neither, one is actually, ya know, fucking LEGAL.

While I like neither, one is actually, ya know, fucking LEGAL.

Right. I'm also not a huge fan of hunting, but at least some of the time, it provides *food* for people. As opposed to dog-fighting, which provides cheap and cruel thrills for assholes.

provides cheap and cruel thrills

Which can be more easily attained by watching America's Got Talent.

Contemporary reporting on the NFL's response to Carruth.

The NFL has had to police the recent outbreak of unnecessary roughness and late hits that threaten to maim players. But many of the league's players are now doing their maiming off the field. Jeff Benedict and Don Yeager's new book, Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL, lists the league's known felons. Here's just a smattering: Cornelius Bennett (rape and sexual assault); Cortez Kennedy (domestic violence); Andre Rison (aggravated assault); Deion Sanders (aggravated assault and battery). Since 1997, law-enforcement officials have arrested more than 100 of the NFL's 2,000 or so players—average salary $600,000—for violent crimes.

Like O. J. Simpson before them, two of the league's current star players are now up on murder charges: Rae Carruth, wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers, for allegedly masterminding the fatal drive-by shooting of his pregnant girlfriend; and Ray Lewis, all-pro linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens, for allegedly stabbing to death two men outside an Atlanta bar with the help of two accomplices. The league's response? "We have fewer incidents involving NFL players than society at large has," NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue tepidly observes in response to the two crimes. The league needs to answer why they hire individuals prone to commit violent felonies in the first place.

Right. I'm also not a huge fan of hunting, but at least some of the time, it provides *food* for people. As opposed to dog-fighting, which provides cheap and cruel thrills for assholes.

This is me.

I'm wondering what stake the NAACP has in the NFL that somebody thought it was a good idea to have White comment on this case.

America's Got Talent is a dogfighting show?

America's Got Talent is a dogfighting show?

It sometimes feels like it.