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The Most Hated (Current) Athlete in America
06/28/06
by Clay
On June 13, J.J. Redick confirmed his status as the most hated current athlete in America.
In the days following his DWI arrest, even Barry Bonds might have been thinking, "Dude, I thought people hated me." Across the ACC, 11 other fan bases cheered. I halfway expected the University of North Carolina to cancel summer classes and spend the day celebrating. Perhaps Wake Forest students would roll their quad with toilet paper as they do after big victories. North Carolina State students might also even forget they actually went to the seventh best school in North Carolina for a minute or two amidst their glee.
Judging from this reaction, if it had been Redick who had gone through the windshield of a car instead of Ben Roethlisberger, there would have been a spontaneous carnival in North Carolina. After all, while it may be uncouth to celebrate someone's misfortunes, Duke has been so successful on the court in ACC country that rivals have to take their victories wherever they can. So J.J. Redick was arrested and a nation rejoiced.
How did this happen? How did J.J Redick go from a talented 22-year-old from Virginia to a rough approximation of the Anti-Christ? If Redick was arrested a week earlier on 6-6-06, I guarantee a Web site would have been created the next day proclaiming the end times were near. Seriously, Redick’s trajectory from nobody to hated by everybody deserves to be studied by an enterprising graduate student. This is even more remarkable because everyone is forming their opinions on Redick based on about four hours of television a week during college basketball season.
Here are a list of things Redick never did: Punch a player in the groin, lose his academic eligibility, father multiple children by multiple women before he was 20 or ever commit and be accused of committing a felony or misdemeanor while attending college.
Here are a list of things Redick did: Strike a pose after making three-point field goals, be the supposed beneficiary of lenient officiating and graduate from college. Seriously, are these the actions of a man who should make America’s blood boil? The hate is almost mind-boggling given the failures we’ll permit other athletes of lesser basketball skill. Perhaps the Redick hate says much more about white America’s envy of a cocky white athlete than it does about Redick himself at all.
So I was not without sympathy for Redick -- especially because there were probably thousands of other college kids arrested that same day and week for infractions we’ll never hear about. Even if several of those arrested also were athletes. Further, Duke's athletic department has suddenly gone from the NCAA's student athlete elite to NCAA pariah in a couple of months. And it’s only going to get worse. Football season is just 10 weeks away. These rapid falls from grace represent the pinnacle of media hypocrisy -- they flagellate a school for failure one moment and laud them with excesses the next.
At no point is either fully indicative of the school or its students. The reality at Duke is as it was before the alleged lacrosse incident and Redick’s arrest: Tons of student-athletes perform admirably and a few don’t. Give me a break. As a group, Duke’s athletes are similar in their trouble-making incidents to Duke’s undergrads. And just about every parent currently reading this column would give their left arm to have their kid get a Duke scholarship. So let’s not use this incident in conjunction with the lacrosse story to create a situation that truly doesn’t exist.
Right now, everyone reading this column has probably been impressed with my maturity and sense of justice -- especially in conjunction with my Steve McNair column. Perhaps you’re thinking that in the space of a few weeks, I’ve suddenly become kinder, more gentle and enjoy petting my growing pet bunny while watching Oprah. Of course, those feelings among my readership couldn’t last. My defense of Redick above -- from the moment a friend e-mailed me the Redick mugshot -- I’ve been hard pressed not to die laughing. I mean, with his blue-trending-toward-purple polo shirt with a pink horse, the gelled short hair and perfectly clean-shaven face, Redick looks like he just accepted the Zack Morris Preppy of the Year award.
JJ Redick's mug shot looks exactly like his facebook photo
Incidentally, while not relating in any way to sports, Dustin Diamond, a.k.a. Screech, from Saved by the Bell, is currently in danger of having his home foreclosed. To keep this from happening, he is selling autographed T-shirts emblazoned with "I gave $15 to help Screeech save his house." The extra "e" is because he does not have copyright usage of the name "Screech." This is 100 percent true.
Without further ado, here are 10 things I found surprising about the Redick arrest and resulting mugshot:
1. Redick’s collar wasn’t popped. Does anyone doubt the collar was up at some point earlier in the evening? Is there a Durham police policy against popped collars in mug shots? Please, someone let me know.
2. Mike’s Hard Lemonade really does pack a punch.
3. Mike Krzyzewski wasn’t weeping in the background.
4. No shell necklace? Really, no shell necklace? Please, say it ain’t so. Let a man dream -- perhaps the police confiscated the shell necklace before Redick’s photo was taken.
5. Evidently they serve alcohol at some poetry jams.
6. Dick Vitale wasn’t riding shotgun.
7. Duke forward Shelden Williams has eyes in the back of his head. How do you not take Williams out with you every night so you can see police roadblocks in advance? Especially given Redick’s supposed ability to use his teammates to make everyone better. Coach K needs to redraw this play, I suppose.
8. Redick’s arms aren’t raised above his head as if he just hit a three-point shot. I have zero doubt this is the only reason the ubiquitous WWJD bracelet is obscured.
9. Allen Iverson and Ricky Williams: Zero combined arrests for drunk driving. J.J. Redick: One arrest for drunk driving. Odds on this becoming a reality before last week: 1 billion to one.
10. People I wish riding shotgun with J.J. Redick that could have, paradoxically, made him more beloved in arrest than he ever was playing basketball: Kid Rock, Rev. Pat Robertson (after leg-pressing 2,000 pounds, everyone needs a cold one to relax), Jenna Jameson, former Supreme Court associate justice Sandra Day O’Connor, 50 Cent, Steve Urkel from Family Matters, Owen Wilson and O.J. Simpson.
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