Some crime against football players

Here is an article from USA Today on why many football players feel the need to own guns. Suppose that the number of robberies described below is 24 over three years. That is a rate for football players of over 500 per 100,000 people. Compare that to the rate for the country as a whole of 148 per 100,000 in 2007.

Despite these precautions, trouble sometimes finds these players.

• Three days before the Burress shooting, his teammate, Steve Smith, was robbed at gunpoint after being dropped off at his town house in a chauffeur-driven car. Some say that may have compelled Burress to bring his gun to the club.

• Former Packers running back Noah Herron fended off a robber in his house by beating him with a bedpost.

• Last year, Texans cornerback Dunta Robinson was robbed at gunpoint in his house, tied up, and had his kids shoved into a closet. He now owns a gun and says it makes him feel safer.

• There have been dozens of other examples of athletes getting robbed in recent years, both in and out of football, including Will Allen, Eddie Curry, Antoine Walker and Stephon Marbury. . . .

Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was in a limousine, trying to get away from a scene that had turned ugly, when he was shot and killed in Denver on Jan. 1, 2007.

Last summer, Raiders receiver Javon Walker, who was sitting next to Williams in the limo when he was killed, was beaten up and said he had $100,000 in jewelry and $3,000 cash stolen in Las Vegas. Police said Walker willingly got into the passenger seat of a Range Rover driven by his alleged assailants, an easy target because he was drunk.

Jaguars offensive lineman Richard Collier had to have his left leg amputated below the knee this year after being shot 14 times while sitting in a car outside an apartment complex waiting for two women he had met at a night club. Police believe the man accused of shooting him was retaliating for an earlier altercation at a night club. . . .