Boxed out

Tyson shouldn't be allowed back into the ring

The day was clear, cool and comfortable, as I recall. I had driven into the Catskills in upstate New York from my home in Manhattan to spend the day with a young fighter who was said to have the punching power of the gods. Mike Tyson met me in a local diner, where we had lunch. Then he showed me around town and took me to his home and onto the roof where he kept the pigeons he raised and nurtured. I remember his gap-toothed smile and his lisp. But most of all I remember a young man who had been destined for destruction as a delinquent but who seemed to have found peace in a benefactor, Cus D'Amato, and a sport, boxing.

In the years since that day, I have thought often of that young man. I've wondered if any ounce of him remained inside the angry, frightening -- and, in many ways, sad -- man Tyson grew up to become. Now I just wonder when that young man died.

The Mike Tyson I met that day in the Catskills indeed is gone. No doubt remains, not after hearing the words he spewed to Greta Van Susteren for an interview that aired Thursday night on Fox. The subject was Tyson's conviction more than a decade ago for the 1991 rape of Desirée Washington, an 18-year-old Miss Black America contestant, in Indianapolis. Tyson served three years of a six-year sentence and completed his parole in 1999.

When asked by Van Susteren, an attorney, whether he had raped Washington, Tyson replied: "No, I didn't rape that slimy bitch."

Were that not enough, Tyson blamed Washington -- whom he called a "lying, reptilian, monstrous young lady" (yes, he used the word lady) -- for the "stigma" he lives with of being a "big, black rapist," and said he was so angry with her that if he saw her today he'd rape her. "I really wish I did [rape her] now," he said. "Now I really do want to rape her and her f------ mama."

Mike Tyson, one of the most dominant and fearsome heavyweight champions of all time, is 36 years old. He last fought in February, when he busted a tomato can named Clifford Etienne in a single round.

He should never fight again.

States from New Jersey to California should follow Nevada's lead and, once and for all, stop enabling this madness. And no civil nation should welcome him onto its shores.

Nearly 100 men have been released from prison since 1986 after their rape convictions were overturned by newly discovered DNA evidence. I've often been awed at the lack of anger expressed by many of these men as they walked to freedom, in some cases after nearly two decades behind bars. They have shown a compassion that I, frankly, might struggle to show if I found myself in those same circumstances.

Unlike those men, Tyson has not been exonerated of his crime. I have never been a proponent of preventing someone from earning a living at his craft -- even convicted felons. In the pantheon of athletes who have allowed their mouths to override their brains, John Rocker, Fuzzy Zoeller and David Wells deserved what they received: fines, suspensions, reprimands. Or some combination of the three.

Tyson now joins that motley crew and trumps them outright. His remarks were sickening and repulsive, and offensive to all humanity.

I grieve for the Tyson I knew. And, as with any loss, I've struggled to let go, long believing that the young man I met in the Catskills was still alive somewhere inside the being who lost his way. The struggle is over.

It was good to meet you then, Mike. Now, may you find peace -- outside the ring.

Roy S. Johnson is an assistant managing editor for Sports Illustrated. His "Pass the Word" column appears on SI.com every Friday. Catch Johnson on CNN Headline News every Thursday at 3:40 p.m. ET.

 

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