By now, you’ve undoubtedly heard about Serena Williams’s match-losing, side judge-threatening outburst yesterday evening against Kim Clijsters, so there’s really no need to cover the basic incident in detail here (if you are just climbing out of your hole and wish to learn more about the outside world, click here, here, here, here, here, or here).
And yeah, the incident was surprising, kind of disappointing, and, if you’re a cynical jerk like me, a little humorous. But Serena was gonna lose anyway and this really didn’t affect the match much. The real interesting thing here is the ongoing reaction to it, and the effect it might have on her career going forward.
Already, the nation’s old, white sports columnists have begun to pounce on Serena’s outburst. The LA TIMES’ Bill Dwyre reacted as if Serena had punched his mother in the face, calling for suspensions, fines and inexplicably comparing her to LeGarrette Blount. FOX SPORTS’ Zachary Pierce was just so offended and wondered if Tiger Woods would ever react so strongly - with the implication, of course, being that he would not. That is possibly the most ludicrous projection ever - OF COURSE Tiger would react strongly. He’s got one of the foulest mouths in sports, and the world is rife with stories about Tiger going off on people. Silly. Of course, Jason Whitlock, Skip Bayless, and Jay Mariotti haven’t even gotten out of bed yet today, so you can be assured that more manufactured outrage is on the way.
About the only reasonable reaction (other than this one, of course) was from the NY DAILY NEWS’ Filip Bondy, who just called the outburst “sad“. That’s about right. It was immature and disappointing, but hardly unique in the history of sports. Michael Jordan, Nick Saban, and countless other coaches and athletes have said far worse to referees and opponents. That doesn’t make it right. But it also doesn’t make it rare. And if it didn’t affect their careers, why on earth would it affect Serena’s? She’ll pay a fine, release a statement, and the world - and the world of tennis - will go on just fine.
8:18 pm on September 13th, 2009
They fined her $10000. I think that’s fair.
9:30 pm on September 13th, 2009
Other people have said stuff like that, but they don’t do it in an obvious way that shows the official up in front of everyone. Their arguments are not made in quiet stadiums where everyone can hear every grunt a player makes. Tennis has different rules of etiquette than either football or basketball and the way she acted goes against the proper etiquette of the sport. People in sports curse all the time, but when Tiger Woods does it it gets attention because golfers are not supposed to show emotion like that, same thing here.
Everyone knows what she said and she came off looking like the spoiled jerk she is. This is common for her. I’m glad she finally got caught. She is one of the biggest babies in sports and whenever she losses always blames everyone else. After loosing a match, has she ever said the other person just played a better game? Does anyone actually think she will ever even issue an apology even after the fine?
Can’t wait to see the latest excuse Wilbon makes for her on PTI tomorrow, followed by the 10 times in 30 seconds he mentions that he knows Donovan McNabb personally when talking about the Eagles.
10:19 pm on September 13th, 2009
Serena is a racist.
12:50 am on September 14th, 2009
Brilliant op ed piece…..piece…… piece of something.
All the “old, white sports columnists/journalists”.
I don’t give a good GD what color, religious affilliation or ethnicity a journalist/columnist is. That’s not important in the slightest. What is important is the boorish behaviour Ms. Williams exhibited.
She did own up and accept responsibility for her actions, which is more than the baiting composer of this article will do I’m sure.
Grow up and get past the “all white people are racist” spiel. It gets old and is one of the main reasons we still have the troubles in this country regarding race that we do.
4:11 am on September 14th, 2009
Bet you didn’t hear anything from McEnroe…..
10:59 am on September 14th, 2009
“old white sports columnists” - you couldn’t possibly be trying to stir up a little racial issue here? She was a complete A*%Hole. She threatened an umpire, her apology amounted to “everyone else foot faults” what’s the big deal NOT addressing the fact that she verbally assaulted an offical doing her job. She is an A%$hole. If a white player did the same thing they would be an A$#hole.
12:41 pm on September 14th, 2009
She had every right to go off, you DONT make that call at that time in a match, no one does…its like calling palming at :12 sec left in game seven of the NBA finals, you DONT make that call….Serena was right in going off.
1:42 pm on September 14th, 2009
Get it straight. I agree it should not have been called that late in the match based on what has become the standard in tennis. However, if she yelled “are you kidding me, you are going to call that at the end of the match” - i would understand. Threatening the poor little lady when she is a third the size of Serena and threating to shove a ball down her throat? That is a physical threat and black or white, I have an issue with that behavior. She is a bully and a primadonna brat, period! She should be suspended and return her $300,000 + she earned at the tournament and should be forced to go to anger management.