CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

               One of the reasons we follow sports is that they provide respite from the depressing stuff that comprises most of the rest of the news, but sometimes—and, it seems, increasingly—the “real” world intrudes even there. Such has been the case of late as two stories—the imprisonment in Russia on drug charges of the basketball star Brittney Griner and the penalty handed football quarterback Deshaun Watson for sexual predations—dominate the sports pages.

               In neither case is there much dispute over guilt; Griner fessed up that the two vape-pipe vials of hashish found in her luggage when she entered Moscow on February 17 were hers, and Watson’s reported settlements of 23 lawsuits against him by masseuses who said he tried to force himself on them during their ministrations amounted to the same thing, no matter what he’s asserted elsewhere. It’s the punishment side of the equation that has stirred debate.

Well OK, that’s not quite it, especially with Griner. Her sentence of nine years in prison for doing something that’s legal in much of the world, and petty in much of the rest, is ludicrous, the product of a legal system that exists to serve the country’s political ends. Really, she’s a hostage, opportunistically snatched to secure a ransom. The issue really is whether getting her release is worth the price it’s sure to command (and has already commanded), and her responsibility for it.

To say that the 31-year-old was careless is an understatement. She was no naïve tourist but someone quite familiar with Russia and its ways, having played basketball there for months annually since 2015. Foreign travel is a staple for American woman basketball pros, whose short summer season (May through August) in the domestic Woman’s National Basketball Association, and relatively low pay there ($228,000 a season tops), makes additional income attractive.

The Russian league long has been a favored landing spot for U.S. stars, especially the team in the city of Ekaterinburg, on which Griner played. Owned as a vanity project by Iskander Makhmudov, a mining magnate, it has paid seven-figure annual salaries to the likes of her and, previously, her Phoenix Mercury teammate Diana Taurasi. It also has thrown in luxury hotel accommodations, charter-flight game travel and personal cars with drivers. Unmindful of the international uproar over Russia’s threatened invasion of Ukraine, which would start a week after her arrest, Griner was returning from a season break when she was grabbed.

For regimes such as those in Russia, Iran and North Korea, which don’t care about the world’s good opinion and already labor under heavy economic sanctions, kidnapping a citizen of a democracy is the perfect crime, all take and no give.  Any American who visits those lands should have his or her head examined. Whatever political pressures the acts generate fall entirely on leaders of the victimized countries. Refusing to do business with kidnappers might make a good political applause line, but to the hostage’s dear ones—and their supporters— giving up Nebraska to get the person back seems justified.

 In Griner’s case Russia’s reported main demand is the release of Viktor Bout, a genuine bad guy serving a 25-year U.S. prison sentence for arms smuggling. Ransom settlements aren’t made public, so other things (like cash) may be involved. A swap should happen soon because Russia has milked the situation for about all its worth, but whatever the deal the U.S. should insist Griner give up her passport as soon as she returns. 

Watson’s misdeeds were egregious but, apparently, not criminal; a Texas grand jury refused to indict him after police investigated the charges. They did, however, meet the criterion of “offensive contact” needed to support claims of civil assault; hence, the lawsuits against him. He sat out the entire 2021 season (at full pay of $10.4 million, by the way) while the charges percolated. In the off-season he was traded by the Houston Texans to the Cleveland Browns for three first-round draft choices and a couple of other picks, and given a five-year contract worth an eyepopping $230 million, fully guaranteed. That was despite his facing further discipline.

One might reasonably ask where the National Football League gets off wielding court-like powers over its employees. It does so under the “personal conduct” clause of its contract with its union, made necessary by the fact that big-time footballers (like other top team-sport pros) are too valuable to be fired for offenses short of felonies, so public outrage must be satisfied otherwise. In July an arbitrator ordered Watson to serve a six-game suspension this season, but this was deemed too lenient in the court of public opinion so the league threatened to appeal, asking for 16 games, or a full regular season. Rather than drag the matter through a real court, the league and union agreed, Solomonlike, on an 11-game term, plus a $5 million fine.

The most-remarkable thing about the episode was how little it will cost Watson financially. His Browns’ contract works out to $46 m a year, but in the first year about $45 m of that is being treated as a signing bonus with just $1m as salary, and he’ll be docked 11/16^th of the latter figure. That’s about $690,000, hardly a tip for someone in his income bracket. The $5 million fine was a sop to possible critics of that arrangement.

The next most-remarkable thing was the 26-year-old’s fixation with massages as possible sexual outlets; by one published account he contracted for those with 66 different women over a 17-month period ended last year.  His penalty includes submission to counseling. That should be interesting, at least to the counselor.

 Did his punishment fit his crimes?  I don’t know. I do know it’s good to be a young, talented and very (very) rich athlete in present-day America. He’ll be booed for a while in road stadiums when he plays again, but a touchdown pass or two should make him golden in Cleveland. And after work he’ll have a nice ride home and place to live. And maybe a nice massage.