Serena slams her way to another Wimbledon title
while Adrian Peterson gets a trip to the slammer.
Serena claims 5th
Wimbledon dish
You’re
Serena Williams and you’ve got the butt of a middle linebacker and a pair of
legs like California redwoods, yet you wear haute couture with the fearless
abandon of a wispy waif strutting the catwalks of Milan or Paris. You’re Serena Williams and you’ve never met a
camera you didn’t like. You’re Serena
Williams and you’re worth $85 million. You’re Serena Williams and you’re one of the greatest women’s tennis
players to ever grace the game.
It’s hard to
believe that the former tennis prodigy is on the wrong side of thirty. It doesn’t seem that long ago that another young,
powerful woman with a cosmic name was turning heads and changing the game. Her name was Venus Williams and she looked
like the total package, but her father said her younger sister was even
better. And, you know what? He was
right.
Serena Williams
owes much of her success in women’s tennis to a devastating serve and a
ferocious forehand. However, she has not
been a rigid devotee of the game, and many say she has not delivered on her true
potential. It sounds preposterous to
speculate that a woman who has 14 Grand Slams to her credit has somehow fallen
short of expectations. But, Serena has
drifted away whether it be to injury or her dalliances with fashion, music
and the many accoutrements that come with the fusion that is the modern celebrity
athlete.
On Saturday,
Serena simply overwhelmed her younger adversary by powering past the up and
coming Agnieszka Radwanska.
She had more aces than a case of Bicycle playing cards during this
year’s Wimbledon but none more profound than the four rapid fire laser beams
she delivered in under a minute. It was
a precursor of things to come. Williams
eventually wrapped up the rain delayed contest and hoisted the golden dish
aloft on the emerald lush of the All England Club’s dewy lawn.
While Serena
Williams might have more titles if she had dedicated herself solely to tennis, it
speaks volumes of her explosive power and preternatural abilities. In most cases turning thirty is the
death knell for players who make it that far, but she is not your average
future Hall of Famer. She has
demonstrated no diminished power or skill set. As a matter of fact, a case could be made that she is subtly adding even
more weapons to her dynamic arsenal. It
was a deftly placed drop shot that secured the seventh game of the 3rd
set that left her opponent stupefied and ultimately resigned to the fact the
she would not be celebrating on this overcast afternoon.
Serena’s
heroics were not limited to her singles title as she also secured a 13th
Grand Slam doubles championship with her older sister Venus. Perhaps her greatest strength is derived from
the obstacles put in front of her. She
is an African-American from the mean streets of Compton busting into the lily
white province of professional tennis and changing the script. She has had her share of potentially life
threatening medical issues as well.
Williams had
this to say about the challenges she has faced and the intestinal fortitude
needed to overcome them, “I
didn’t give up. I was just so tired. I
had a tube in my stomach and it was draining constantly. Gosh, I mean, right
before that I had the blood clot. I had lung problems. You know, then I had two
foot surgeries. It was a lot . . . a lot. I felt like I didn’t do anything to
bring on that. I felt like, uh, I just felt down . . . the lowest of lows.’’
Though Serena Williams may be brash and humility never
her strong suit, it is because of that steely resolve that she has shone like a
beacon on the biggest stage in women’s tennis. After her career is over and she is welcomed into the hallowed halls of
Newport Rhode Island’s Tennis Hall of Fame, she will stand as a goliath among
the giants of the sport. But, that is in
the future, because Ms. Williams will no doubt add several more pieces
of hardware to her already overcrowded mantle.
Adrian Peterson
stars in Locked Up
You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here. We’ve all heard those unwanted words when the
night is still young only to us, the people enjoying it. But to the bartenders, servers, managers, and
everyone else on the clock, it’s the end of a shift and time to go home. When they tell you to move along, it means
stealing a few extra minutes to drain your beer and then finding a place to
crash.
But when you’re an NFL star, that message is for everyone
but you and your posse. And so it goes,
the same old same old for entitled young athletes who don’t understand that
even they have to follow the rules on occasion. Adrian Peterson was arrested over the weekend when an off-duty police
officer asked him and his crew to take the party outside. Peterson was asked again a short time later
and responded that he had already heard him and allegedly pushed
the officer causing him to stumble. A
scuffle broke out and it took three officers to ultimately subdue the talented
Viking running back.
It can certainly be conjectured as to whether or not the
cop was confrontational but, nevertheless, when you’re a guest and are asked to
leave, you leave. The officer may have
even asked politely, but clearly that is not the point.
One thing is for sure. Peterson will come out with the obligatory apologies to his family, his
fans and, of course, the organization. His
agent is already writing the short speech which will be delivered to the media
and no further questions taken. But the
crux of the matter is that professional athletes begin to believe their own
press clippings. They have been treated
differently since their elementary school coach initially realized they could
run faster, throw farther or jump longer. Peterson isn’t the first pampered athlete to ask, “Do you know who I
am?” and he won’t be the last. But, let’s
hope Adrian Peterson now understands that there are real life consequences for
very foolish decisions.