STUPID SPORTS SH!T: ATHLETES AND CAMERA PHONES

by Chris Richardson, Intentional Foul

Because of the evil of sports blogging, we're now seeing a large amount of athletes and related backers appearing on the Internet doing stuff their superiors don't necessarily approve of.

From the revelations of the Arizona State cheerleaders getting kicked out to Matt Leinart's sexy party, one thing is sure, if you are going to have a sexy time, DON'T LET ANYONE TAKE PICTURES OF IT.

Do these people not understand where these pictures will end up and the potential grief they will cause them? Apparently not. Take the aforementioned Matt Leinart. During the NFL's off-season, he decides to have a party at his pad and a lot of sexy people were included (like the girl in the author's pic), including some that were supposedly underage.

Now, I don't know about you, but if I'm an NFL quarterback with a reputation to improve or uphold and I'm having a party of this type, I'd make DAMN SURE there was 300-pound bouncer at the door making DAMN SURE every one who came into my house left their picture-taking gadgets in their car.

Hell, I'd just go down to the local strip club and hire a couple of bouncers for the night to do just that. The question is why don't these multi-millionaire athletes think like this? Are they looking for trouble or are they just attention whores?

Who knows, maybe Leinart likes seeing pictures of himself with some underage women doing shit like this:

Whatever the case, we all know his boss, Ken Whisenhunt, sure didn't. Now, I'm not saying Leinart shouldn't be having sexy parties (well, maybe without the alleged underage attendants) but he damn sure shouldn't be giving every attendee an opportunity to take pictures either; pictures that will undoubtedly end up on the Intertubes.

In this age of MySpace, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube, being discrete never hurt anyone. In fact, it usually helps. Just ask the Arizona State cheerleading team. Because of pics like this:

There no longer IS an ASU cheerleading team (There is some confusion about this, but the point remains).

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm all for hot cheerleaders taking pictures of themselves in their underwear (or nothing at all, like little Miss IU cheerleader) but damn folks, use some discretion when you take and/or post these gems. While the male sports bloggers LOVE these pictures, they did nothing for you except get you into some trouble.

Was it worth it?

All I can say is Mark Chmura is DAMN LUCKY camera phones and digital cameras weren't the norm back during all of his troubles. Who knows, maybe he'd be in jail right now if the girls he was screwing around with were MySpace fans...

The bottom line is this, if you are going to get all sexy and/or hold a sexy party, make DAMN SURE no one has a camera. If they do, make sure they don't post those pictures in a public forum. It's really, really simple when you think about it.

Of course, these are pro athletes we are talking about and one thing we know for sure is, not all of them think.