Donald Sterling's Racist Comments + 6 Other Stupid Things Pro Owners

So…you heard, huh? Well then. Screw a proper intro. Let’s get right to it.

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Donald Sterling allegedly made racist comments that got recorded and, later, released by both TMZ and Deadspin.

The NBA’s new commissioner Adam Silver, who still reeks of new car smell, has announced that they will conduct an investigation into the authenticity of these tapes and into whether it was edited to unfavorably portray Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

Meanwhile, everyone else has already removed the ‘allegedly’ and is steady roasting Sterling in the fires of public opinion. Sterling’s taking head shots from Snoop Dogg, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, his wife (who later went back on her own words) and even President Obama.

This tape may or may not be genuine, but Sterling already has a history of living his life with a well-documented disgust for minorities.

This gets really interesting when you consider that at the time of the recordings he was cheating on his wife with a half-Black/half-Latina woman, huh?

Know what though? Nothing’s going to happen. Professional sports team owners have a significant history of misconduct while receiving minimal punishment for their misgivings.

Indianapolis Colts owner caught driving drunk with prescription drugs on him

On March 16 Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts, was out having a lovely night-time drive when a cop pulled him over for erratic driving. The officer conducted field tastes to confirm that Irsay was drunk as f***. He also found four Schedule IV prescription drugs in Irsay’s car for which Irsay had no prescription and $29k. The officer took him to jail, but Irsay was released on bail so he could go into rehab. The NFL is still looking into potential punishments, but don’t hold your breath. It will most likely be a relative slap on the wrist.

Russian pro-hockey players fly in dangerous planes

In 2011, an old-ass, ramshackle plane was carrying millions of dollars worth of cargo: an entire pro hockey team. Russia’s new hockey league spent lavishly to start their own rival to the American National Hockey League by building new facilities, hiring coaches, signing players and developing organizations to compete. The problem? The planes that transported these teams were 20+ years old.

On September 9, 2011, the Lokomotiv plane, carrying one of the league’s premiere teams, crashed, killing 100% of the players. It’s a sadness so tragic that none of the owners have since gotten better planes, nor have penalties been levied for not affecting change.

Major League Soccer team owner fires all non-Mexican staff

Gorge Vergara owns C.D. Guadalajara aka Chivas, a Mexican professional soccer team that plays in Mexican pro soccer leagues. They are one of the most successful and storied Mexican soccer teams in Mexico. Vergara figured lightning could strike twice.

On August 29, 2012 Vergara became sole owner of Chivas USA in the American MLS and started removing everyone that wasn’t Mexican or didn’t speak Spanish. He fired everyone that didn’t fit this standard from organizational staff to coaches and trainers to players. His punishment? MLS bought his team back from him.

NFL owners cheat on the salary cap

Due to a problem with the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players, the 2010 football season went without a salary cap. Apparently, there was some unwritten agreement between the commissioner’s office and the owners that no one was gonna use this to their advantage by front-loading players’ contracts to dodge salary caps in future years.

The Washington Washington Football Team and Dallas Cowboys didn’t seem to get that memo. They both cheated like crazy. Then they both got ‘penalized’ by losing cap space for the 2012 season that would be evenly divided between other teams. Meanwhile, the owners kept making money off of their mediocre teams like it was going out of style.

And do I really need to talk about the racist-ass team names for the Washington Football Team and the Chiefs? No, you’re right. I don’t. Speaking of which though…

Kansas City Chiefs use taxpayer money to pay their own taxes

Due to the way Kansas City taxes are collected, a portion of them go to the Kansas City Chiefs to help with repairs on Arrowhead Stadium. The problem is that they used a small portion of the money collected for repairs and used the rest to pay their payroll taxes.

So if you’re a Chief’s fan paying $20 for parking, $200 for game day tickets and $100 for food and beverages, it must suck to know that a portion of the taxes you paid the city are going straight towards alleviating costs that the Chiefs are legally required to pay, huh?

San Francisco ‘49ers owner failed to report extortion attempt

Eddie DeBartolo was riding quite a whirlwind. His team, the Joe Montana/Jerry Rice-era San Francisco ‘49ers won five championships in 12 years. So why did he not tell the government when a Louisiana governor tried to extort him for $400k? Who knows for sure? Regardless, that and a few other issues that developed from it forced the NFL to insist that he cease to be owner of the team.

So he sold it to his sister to focus on running his other million-dollar businesses and to be inducted into the Bay Area and ‘49ers’ Halls of Fame. Gotta love those golden parachutes.

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