Devils with Pretty Faces: Darren Sharper

For those of you who don’t know of Darren Sharper, he was a NFL safety who played professionally for 14 years with the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, and the New Orleans Saints.  His career included 5 Pro Bowls and 2 trips to the Super Bowl- earning his first ring when the Saints beat the Colts in Super Bowl XLIV in February 2010.  After retiring he worked as an analyst for WWL-TV in New Orleans before leaving to work for the NFL network in the same capacity.

Sharper has been in the news recently because he was arrested in Los Angeles on January 17^th of this year and charged with two separate counts of sexual assault.  The alleged incidents occurred in October of last year and January of this year.  In the short time since his initial arrest, it has come to light that Sharper has been implicated in a total of 8 assaults in 5 states, including his California charges.  Details that have been released suggest that his modus operandi is to meet women at bars/clubs, invite them to accompany him to another party venue, and once they accept, he “stops” at his hotel room/ house, offers them a drink spiked with Ambien, and once they are rendered unconscious, he assaults them.

At his arraignment on February 20^th, Sharper was formally charged with two counts of rape by use of drugs, four counts of furnishing a controlled substance and one count of possession of a controlled substance- all felonies.  The defendant pleaded not guilty and the judge set bail at $1M dollars as well as banning Sharper from nightclubs and forbade him from being alone with women.

For those of you who have never seen Darren Sharper, he is an exceptionally good looking man.  He’s 6”2, around 210 pounds, with a 1000 kilowatt smile, which he seemed to perpetually flash from the sidelines and in front of the cameras.  He always seems to be dressed to the nines, dated beautiful and famous women, and I’ll bet he smells fabulous.  The words “charming” and “likeable” immediately spring to mind when you think of Darren Sharper.  He helped rebuild houses ravaged by Katrina, he was the star attendee at a football camp for women in Slidell, LA last year, and in 2010 he wrote a short essay in a book called NFL Dads Dedicated to Daughters, which was a collaboration with a violence prevention organization called “A Call to Men” whose mission is to make the world safer for women.  Irony?  I don’t think so.

I am not a psychologist or an expert in sex crimes by any stretch of the imagination, but I think that Darren Sharper is a psychopathic serial rapist who boldly and arrogantly stood in front of the world, probably laughing at our “stupidity”, while he fueled his rage against women.  I believe that he intentionally aligned himself with women’s issues to distance himself to possible scrutiny, but also to create a cover in case he ever got caught.  He is not a stupid man.  His whole M.O. is proof of that as it is a sinister, methodical, well-devised plan:  Inviting the victims back to his hotel room or house, and having them willingly agree to come is surely going to be the peanut butter in the chocolate for his attorneys. I imagine that they are going to have a field day with the victims by harping on the fact that these women “voluntarily went to the hotel room of this gorgeous, famous, wealthy man after drinking with him at a bar? Really?”

Yes, these victims might be guilty themselves of making the unfortunate choice of leaving with him, but no one wants to be knocked unconscious and sexually assaulted.  One participant of the female football camp said in an interview after hearing the charges against Sharper, "I saw the way the women were looking at him, he could've had anyone of those girls. He's a triple threat -- pretty, rich and talented." Rape and sexual assault, we need to remember, aren’t crimes based upon sex and desire:  They are attacks rooted in violence, aggression, dominance, subjugation, and rage- forced sexual acts, and fornication are the culmination of these assaults- and those are two very different things.

But in spite of what recent history has shown us, it is still very hard for many people to want to associate heinous crimes to people who have entered our collective and individual consciousness because of their talent, looks, wealth, or seeming goodness- whether we know them casually or simply know of them. It’s very easy for us to put people into compartments based on superficial or slight knowledge- and in a sense, especially as we all routinely and often briefly encounter so many people these days, we have to.  And when those people do something shocking or vile, it makes us re-think and re-examine our whole system of judgment, which is very difficult.  So difficult that it is easier to rationalize said person’s behavior, deny it, or attack the character of the person making the accusation.

And even though his defense team will probably say something like “he suffered multiple concussions that affected his personality and behaviors”, or perhaps they will say the problem is that of a pharmaceutical nature, I don’t believe for a second that Darren Sharper just started these attacks at 37 years of age.  Psychopaths learn early how to mask their darkness with brilliant lights of wit, charm, talent, and drive that draw people to them, make people like them, and trust them. I shake my head when I think about how many potential victims of his are out there that we will never know about. I shudder to think of how easy and accessible victims could have been for him given his NFL status and abundant travels.  I almost cry when I think of the women out there who were too afraid to come forward because they feared they wouldn’t be believed, those who did come forward and weren’t believed, and particularly for those who have no idea what this monster did because they didn’t regain consciousness until after the fact.

I know that in spite of what I have voiced, people are said to be innocent until proven guilty.  I also know that the burden of proof rests with “the people” and sometimes that guilt can’t be proven.  That doesn’t mean that the accused didn’t commit said crime.  Even if Darren Sharper somehow slithers through these charges in California, there are still four other states looking at him. The mask that he has worn for so long on the field, on television, and in our minds has been knocked askew and I do not think it will ever be set right.

For those of you who didn’t know of Darren Sharper, you do now. You probably also know people like him and don’t even realize it.  We all do.  We probably admire some athlete, actor, singer, or poet and assume that because he can catch a ball or run fast, bring tears to our eyes, hold a high note, or rhyme then he’s automatically a moral or trustworthy person.  We need to remember that a person can be anyone he needs to be in the face of the public.  And usually, he will.