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It’s been two weeks since Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius was charged with the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. The circumstances that led to the tragedy are still under investigation. The case has prompted a broader discussion  about the problems of  other athletes, and the guns and mental trauma that may lead to domestic violence. Lance Dixon reports.

REPORTER:

Whether Oscar Pistorius purposely intended to kill his girlfriend or not remains uncertain for now.
But, his case raises greater questions about other high-profile athletes involved in incidents of violent
behavior. Sports psychologist Sara Hickmann has worked with the New York Jets and she says that if
athletes are more prone to these behaviors it might have to do with their celebrity status. (:20)

SARA HICKMANN: “It’s more about abusing power and control, and the mentality of, “I own you, you
are here to serve me. I need to call the shots I’m going to do things how I want to. If you push back I’m
going to inflict pain on you and put you back in your place.” (:16)

There are plenty of examples of athletes involved in violence off the field. Like former New England
Patriots receiver, and occasional reality TV star, Chad Johnson, who arrested for allegedly head-
butting his wife. Or Chicago Bears receiver Brandon Marshall. He has a history of disputes with former
girlfriends and even his wife allegedly leading to stabbing and choking incidents and more. Nearly all
the charges in these cases were eventually not filed, dropped or reduced. Hickmann says that kind of
impunity is not uncommon. (:29)

HICKMANN:

“I think often times the consequences are not appropriate or proportionate to the offense and it’s
harder for them to learn, oh this is probably not a good idea, because they haven’t had the same
consequences as the average person.” (:15)

If the athletes own guns the stakes are higher. Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs was ordered to
give up his seven guns last year after he allegedly punched his girlfriend and dragged her on the ground.
In a separate incident only 11 days later, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot and killed his
girlfriend and then committed suicide. Hickmann says that when players she works with are charged
with domestic violence, specific questions arise. (:25)

HICKMANN:

“Do you have a gun? Do you have a weapon? Do you feel that’s the best thing for you right now while
you’re working through the way you feel about your relationship?” (:08)

In suicide cases, brain trauma can be a factor. As it was with retired linebacker Junior Seau who
committed suicide last May. He was found to be suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy or
CTE, a disease caused by multiple blows to the head and concussive damage. CTE expert, Dr. Julian
Bailes, says other problems are usually involved when CTE leads to suicide. (:22)

JULIAN BAILES:

“Those problems are often failed businesses, failed marriages, failed finances, and then it goes on to
include things like depression and often alcohol or substance abuse, cognitive impairment and many
end in suicide.” (:15)

Hickmann notes that the competitive nature of sports can lead to aggressive behavior off the field, but
Bailes says that that competitive nature is not exclusive to athletes. (:09)

BAILES:

“Everybody who’s in a competitive environment probably feels certain pressures and stresses and a
need to perform. So I think that regardless of what sport you’re in or even what profession you’re in.
Some of these are natural aspects of human behavior.” (:15)

We won’t know for sure what Pistorius did that night until his trial begins in June. But, we do know he
was extremely competitive as a double-amputee and that’s why he was celebrated by so many.

Lance Dixon, Columbia Radio News. (:14)

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Kaitlin Ugolik speaks with Robert Boland, a sports business professor at New York University.

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NFL's Roger Goodell (left) and NFLPA's DeMaurice Smith are the main players in these negotiations. Photo by Charles Dharapak/AP.

The National Football League and its union, the NFL Players Association announced today they’ve agreed to meet with a federal mediator for the next week. It’s an effort to negotiate a new Collective Bargaining Agreement and avoid a strike that could mean an entire year without football.

Simply put, team owners and players are at odds on how to divide football’s massive revenues: a 9 billion dollar pie. Other points of disagreement include the addition of two regular season games, increased benefits for retired players and a rookie salary cap. Robert Boland is a sports business professor at New York University. He says team owners have considerable leverage.

“The worst-case scenario probably right now is that the owners would choose to shut down the game to force an agreement on the players,” he said. “The players would eventually run out of money and sue for peace.”

This is called a lockout. It’s the management’s way of offsetting a strike. Boland says strikes are legal in football, but costly.

“A lockout allows management to stop that economic damage from happening at a critical time by saying we’re just going to cease operation so you can’t hurt us,” he said. “It’s been quite effective in hockey and basketball.”

In the event of a lockout, players wouldn’t get any bonuses or workout off-season money. Team owners on the other hand would still be able to rely on billions of dollars in television revenue. Recently, the players’ union director, DeMaurice Smith, reminded reporters that team owners have consistently earned more since 2006, when the last union contract was struck. Yet, player’s salaries are still years behind.

“We have pushed hard to first get a proposal to understand a justification for a rollback in players share that would put us back around 1992 or 1993,” Smith said. “It’s that serious.”

But NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says the process can’t be rushed. During his annual State of the League press conference on February 4^th, the mood was pretty light, even when player and sometime journalist Chad Ochocinco took the mic.

But then, the Cincinnati Bengals receiver asked him when to expect a deal. Goodell wouldn’t commit.

“We will get an agreement, and I think that’s only going to happen when there’s intense negotiations between your union and the owners,” he said. “This is this the window of opportunity to get this done right because otherwise uncertainty is going to seep into all of our operations.”

Both sides have yet to make concessions. Ken Belson writes about the business of sports for the New York Times. He says the dispute has been somewhat sensationalized by both parties and the media.

“It feels a little bit like a Hollywood negotiation, just given the stature of the players and the league,” he said. “I’ve covered enough labor negotiations to know that a lot of this is theater for our consumption to get one side’s point across or the other side’s point across, and both sides will sort of claim that Armageddon is near.”

Boland, the NYU professor, says the ball is now in the owners’ hands. He says if games are shut down, they would lose money because they wouldn’t sell any tickets or play any games.

“However, they would have a long period of time before they actually play any of those games,” he said. “If they locked out in March, they’d have six months really before games started to be played again and they had any real loss. So they would at least make money in the short run from their television revenue, and not have to play the players.”

A lockout would still  end up hurting team owners, if only for the potential loss of thousands of fans. Boland says that every sport that’s had a significant work stoppage, like a loss of half a season or the loss of a championship, has always taken a lot of time to recover.