Issue date: 5/7/08 Section: Sports

Andrew Eggers [Click to enlarge]

Jose Martinez [Click to enlarge]

Justin Tejada [Click to enlarge]

Roger Clemens
Andrew Eggers

You can now officially compare Roger Clemens to a perverted male coach who develops relationships outside of sports with his younger female players. Or better yet, the high school teacher who has sexual relationships with his students. What other explanation can a 28-year-old married man give for having a relationship with a 15-year-old girl?

The reports say that Clemens was 13 years older than country singer Mindy McCready when the two started what would become a 10-year affair. Clemens was married to his wife Debbie and had two kids when he decided to pull this stunt. It is not news to hear about a professional athlete cheating on his wife (i.e. Barry Bonds, Kobe Bryant), but the fact McCready was underage is worthy of ink in the newspaper.

What were you thinking Roger? I am sure there were good-looking groupies lined up at the door of your hotel room after away games, begging to become another notch in your belt. Why would you pick some young, pale, blonde chick who obviously cannot keep her mouth shut? Roger just joined R. Kelly in my book because both seem to enjoy the company of an underage girl.

After the steroid allegations in the Mitchell Report nearly deflated his larger-than-life persona, he has to deal with this skeleton in his closet. Even if the allegations are not true, which they most likely are, he is going to look like a fool in court against former trainer Brian McNamee, whose lawyers are going to use this to question his character. If a guy can have a decade-long affair with a young girl, he probably does not see anything wrong with injecting steroids in his butt. You can see where I am going with this.

McCready found just the right time to bring this to the world's attention, like it was strategically planned. I even speculated to a friend that McNamee's lawyers found this bimbo and paid her money to make this stuff up just in time for the trial. I hear there are even allegations that Clemens slept with John Daly's ex-wife, who must have been quite a catch considering she married that piece of work. They are coming out of the woodwork, Roger, like when Clinton slept with Monica. The walls are collapsing on you.

Clemens went from a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee to trying to salvage his reputation in less than six months.



Kobe Bryant
Jose Martinez

Being a professional athlete means more than just having large monetary contracts - it also means being exposed to several different types of temptations.

For many, succumbing to those temptations occurs when he or she is away from home, and for Kobe Bryant, he gave into the temptation that can affect his personal life the most: sex, especially when you have it with someone that isn't your wife.

In the summer of 2003 while at a resort in Colorado, Bryant and a teenage girl, Katelyn Faber, had a sexual encounter with one another.

While one called it consensual, the other called it rape. In the following months, Faber and Bryant would be tangled in a criminal and civil court ordeal.

Luck would have it that the professional athlete would escape criminal charges; Faber refused to testify in the criminal case. Bryant would not yet be a free man; Faber filed a civil suit claiming she had suffered mental anguish following the ordeal.

Faber's credibility would be questioned as it was revealed that she wore underpants with another man's semen and pubic hair to the rape examination after the alleged rape had taken place.

Men and women get caught cheating on a daily basis, but when one is a professional sports phenom, things tend to get a little perplexed.

For Bryant, not only was his personal life affected but so was his job. There were several days when he would be in court and immediately fly across country to play in a game.

This showed the tremendous amount of support Bryant had for his then-teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers. His teammates weren't the only ones showing support during the entire Faber ordeal - Bryant's wife, Vanessa Marie Bryant, stood by her man.

Granted, she was donning a $4 million ring, purchased by Bryant after apologizing for his admitted adultery.

This just goes to show how important it is for professional athletes to stay focused on one of two things: their spouse or their sport.



Andrei Kirilenko
Justin Tejada

I think out of all the athletes who cheat on their wives, Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko has it the best. But then again, maybe because it's not really cheating depending on what your perspective is on 'open marriages.'

He's living every unfaithful husband's dream: His own wife has given him a hunting license for some tail once a year. Kirilenko's wife, former Russian pop star Masha Lopatova, said to ESPN that, "If I know about it, it's not cheating." And so she has given Kirilenko free reign to do whatever he wants, to whomever he wants, once a year, anytime during the season.

So sure, she'll know about that one time he cheats on her, but what about the rest? It's kinda like throwing a kid a bag of potato chips. Once he has the taste of one, he'll go through the rest of the bag at the next opportunity.

Perhaps she was aiming for a little bit of reverse psychology? Yeah, that'd work if maybe he wasn't so gosh darn popular and famous as a player for a professional basketball team. That's the sort of thing you tell a man who isn't constantly surrounded by the opportunity to do so. And even then, simply as a joke, that serves as a prelude to a threatening glare.

Why bother getting married if you're just gonna let him sleep around? Another prime example of where the concept defeats the purpose.

The State Hornet Sports Department can be reached at sports@statehornet.com