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Terrell Owens is auctioning off his NFC championship ring to raise money for Katrina relief, and he made sure to publicize it on his Web site. In turn, every newspaper in the country noted Owens' generosity. Coming a few days after he visited the Astrodome, it went a long way toward repairing an image that has been hurt by everything else he's done in the past three months.
This isn't to disparage Owens or any other athlete's contributions, but the aftermath of the hurricane raises a question: What is an athlete's responsibility? Is it greater than a non-celebrity's responsibility? And if an athlete chooses to keep his generosity private, does he run the risk of being considered cheap and uncaring because he doesn't make a public show of it? Serena Williams got some ink for promising to donate $100 for each ace the rest of the year. This seems the most shallow pledge -- basing it on your individual performance so the attention always returns to … well, you. Plus, given the way Serena has played recently, it doesn't rate much on the generosity scale, either.
Of all the publicly-known efforts put forth by athletes, this one is the coolest: Saints defensive back and Washington State graduate Steve Gleason teamed with his mom -- a WSU doctoral student -- to start the "Backpacks of Hope" foundation, which delivers fully stocked backpacks to students who were displaced. If you're looking for a cause, you could do worse than that one.
This Week's List• Week 1 observations, straight from the Larry King Dept. of Obviousness: (1) There is an outside chance the Vikings and Daunte Culpepper really will miss Randy Moss; (2) Feel free to permanently remove the "genius" part from the "eccentric genius" description of Mike Martz; (3) The Steelers' offensive line is the most dominant line-of-scrimmage force in the league; (4) It's hard to have a better day than the 49ers' combo of Julian Peterson and Bryant Young; (5) Larry Johnson is a fine backup running back. • Now that the Vikings and Panthers -- the Super Bowl picks of the stars -- aren't going to go undefeated: The new fad teams are the 49ers and Lions. • Serena, apparently, is the newshound of the family: Asked to comment about Hurricane Katrina while at the U.S. Open, Venus Williams said, "I don't really watch the news. In some ways, I'm very unaware of the latest happenings in the world." • Just for the heck of it: Steve Emtman. • The most dominant athlete in sports today: Roger Federer. • The most dominant athlete with the least competition: Roger Federer. • Here's a tough one: AL Manager of the Year -- Eric Wedge or Ozzie Guillen? • Given the implications, Major League Baseball wouldn't want to acknowledge it, but if you're looking for a true Comeback Player of the Year, there's only one guy to consider: Jason Giambi. • A scheduling decision that was bound to make the losing team wonder why it didn't place the call to Ball State instead: Ohio State-Texas.
