We have been avoiding this one altogether, but Friday’s events involving former Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints safety Darren Sharper are now impossible to ignore.
Sharper was charged with rape in Los Angeles. He allegedly raped four women in Los Angeles by drugging them with with a mixture of Ambien and morphine. The police report says Sharper offered the women shots that contained his rape cocktail, they would pass out almost immediately and then wake up feeling like they had been sexually assaulted or. One of the women allegedly woke to find Shaper on top of her.
Sharper is maintaining his innocence, saying the sex was consensual in one case and that he doesn’t know the woman in another.
It gets worse. Although Shaper has been charged in Los Angeles, he’s under investigation in three other states where almost identical incidents have been reported. Those incidents allegedly occurred in New Orleans, Las Vegas and Tempe, Arizona.
Each of the five reports read almost exactly the same. They all involve two women, except for the New Orleans report. Sharper meets the women in a club, invites them to an after party, they somehow end up in a hotel room or home, Sharper gives them a shot, they pass out and then wake up with him on top of them or feeling like they’ve been assaulted.
Sharper hasn’t been convicted of anything yet, but these are some pretty serious accusations. And let’s just say it — it would be an awfully big coincidence if women in four different cities filed complaints against Sharper that read almost identically.
The other thing I keep thinking about is what if one of these women were my sister or a friend?
I am totally and completely fucking disgusted.
We’ll be keeping an eye on how this plays out. If convicted, Sharper could be facing more than 30 years in prison.
Lastly, I know this may seem convenient, but we haven’t thought much of Sharper since he left Green Bay. He went straight to the Vikings for one. Secondly, he never seemed to embrace what it was to be a Packer.
Look at a guy like Ryan Longwell. He played for the Vikings, but in the end he came back and retired as a Packer.
Once Sharper left town, that was pretty much it.