I'll File This Under "Not At All Surprising."

The New York Post apparently has video of Pedro Martinez and Juan Marichal gleefully participating in cockfights in the Dominican Republic, the most recent example of professional athletes love of 1) gambling, 2) animal cruelty, 3) getting caught participating in one or both of these things.

Also interesting, the article says: "The event shown in the video takes place in the Coliseo de Gallos - Rooster Coliseum - in Santo Domingo, the country's biggest cockfighting venue."

Is that like "Kitchen Stadium" on Iron Chef? Do they really need that? Apparently the bloodsport is so popular in the DR that the crowds were starting to overwhelm the previous largest cockfighting venue, known as "the cardboard box behind a strip bar."

The article also states that Martinez and Marichal pitted their trained fighting birds against one another (Marichal won, for those of you who are as grimly curious as I am).

It is legal there, so it's not like either of these guys are going to take any litigious flack for this, but my question is this: If guys like Pedro, Vick and Marichal are participating in this, definitely for gambling purposes, what's our estimate for the total number of players across all major sports and *shudder* NASCAR that push the envelope because of their crazy competitive desire?

We've watched steroids get out of hand because players are so crazy for competition that they'll even try and chemically alter the playing field within their sport, and I defintely think there's something to the "Jordan played baseball because he was secretly suspended" theory, I just want to know whether you guys think stuff like gambling and participating in the fighting and killing of [dogs, roosters, hookers in Jell-o, beta fish, etc.] is the exception or the rule?

Retirement of a Legend

With the retirement of the General, 2 questions arise.

1st: Is Bobby Knight the Greatest College basketball coach of all time?
2nd: Do his transgressions tarnish his career/legacy?

1: I say no, but he is in the top 3. He won games with sub-par talent, and does more with less than anyone else. He graduates his players, has a clean program, and is respected by al his peers, even if they hate him. Hell, he made Texas Tech a solid program where nothing existed before.

2: Yes, but unfairly. He is from a different era, and a different background than todays coaches and players. Most of his major gripes are that he was too harsh on his players, but all but a handful love him, and speak highly of his intense loyalty and support. While I would never want to go Hunting with him, I would have loved to watch him coach.

Other than Huggins, I was exposed to Knight the most gorwing up, and going to school in Indianna, I grew to understand the psychotic loyalty his diehard fans had for him. Eventhough every kid in indianna could recite his famous rants by memory, they all loved him and dreamed of playing for Bobby Knight one day. And if you think the backlash of UC fans over the Huggins firing was intense, the backlash over the Knight firing was 10 times worse. And you do not get that without being a great coach.