Padecky: Owners of sports teams should be seen only when necessary, like a garbage truck making its weekly pickup

Owners of sports teams should be seen only when necessary, like a garbage truck making its weekly pickup. Because there’s a good chance if they stay any longer they very well might give off a scent not all that pleasing.

So before we discuss David Tepper and Jim Irsay we should know how all this started innocently enough. The retelling is quite benign by today’s standards, but here he is nonetheless, Charles Comiskey, owner of the Chicago White Sox in the early 1900s.

Comiskey had his players buy and wash their uniforms. Needless to say, the White Sox did not lead the league in stolen bases, as sliding into second base attracts dirt and players fuming about how much laundry detergent to use after striking out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth.

Ah, the good ‘ol days when frugal was the damnation that grabbed headlines. Today’s owners, some of them anyway, have lost contact with reality to the point they need a timeout to sit in the corner while we reevaluate the assumption they are adults.

Tepper is the owner of the worst team in pro football, the Carolina Panthers. In his owners’ luxury box, watching his team stumble against Jacksonville recently, Tepper heard some heckling, as his seat was just above the fans’.

Tepper responded appropriately for a 3-year-old and tossed a drink at the fan. The toss was caught on video. This stunned the NFL as the league thought throwing a tantrum was the extent of hurling anger. The NFL fined Tepper $300,000 but did not make him promise to never do it again, otherwise, Tepper would be sent home without his dinner.

Irsay is the owner of the Indianapolis Colts and was arrested in 2014 for a DUI and having a controlled substance in his car. That might be considered humbling, for a DUI arrest of an NFL owner splashed nationwide is a headline that might create a certain unease.

It took Irsay some time to gather his thoughts but nine years later he did. About a month ago Irsay said he was arrested because he was a billionaire. That was a novel defense, to be sure, since the usual excuses apparently didn’t apply like texting or, officer, I was just five miles an hour over the speed limit. Having too much money, we can all agree, is a curse and makes you a target.

It also qualifies someone to be an owner of a professional sports team. With all the rights and privileges therein, the chief of which is arrogance.

Professional athletes exhibit the lion’s share of such a lofty attitude. How could they not? The Warriors’ Draymond Green lost $1.9 million in salary during his 12-game suspension. A large amount to be sure but a mere pebble compared to Green’s current $100 million contract.

Tepper was fined $300,000 for tossing a drink which seems like a lot of money except Tepper, an investment whiz, is worth at least $17.5 billion. Tepper didn’t become an NFL owner because he knew the sport. He became Carolina’s boss because he had the money. The Panthers won two games this year. This means someone is going to be fired and someone will be replaced but Tepper will remain.

That the NFL, MLB and NBA have not vetted thoroughly their owner applicants as well as they should have is obvious. If they did, none of us would have heard or cared about Dan Snyder, Marge Schott, Donald Sterling and John Fisher.

Snyder was ousted as the owner of the NFL’s Washington team for a laundry list of embarrassments, including but not limited to sexual harassment charges, soft porn videos of the team’s cheerleaders, refusing to find the team’s nickname (Redskins) objectionable and charges of bank fraud.

Schott was the owner of the Cincinnati Reds who called her players the “n-word millionaires,” and used derogatory terms to describe those of Japanese descent and African Americans. Adolf Hitler “was OK in the beginning. ..but he went too far.” That MLB took the team from her was an act of kindness to the people of Cincinnati.

Sterling was ousted as the owner of the NBA’s Clippers. He was a smelly combination of Schott and Snyder. Sterling received a lifetime ban for a toxic workplace. He was heckled by his players. One of his executives, Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor, sued him. Labeled a racist and a misogynist Sterling brought shame and humiliation to a level that would have made Schott jealous.

And then there’s Fisher, who people are still trying to find a heartbeat. He ran the A’s into the ground, moving them to Las Vegas without a scintilla of emotion. As for one of his last acts as a cold, cruel human being, Fisher forbade the playing of a June 29 exhibition game at the Coliseum by the minor league Oakland B’s. The game probably would have outdrawn the A’s. As if Fisher would be bothered by embarrassment.

For the 92 owners that own NFL, NBA and MLB teams they know their place. In their luxury box. Look happy. Look distressed. Pout. Smile. The occasional live mug shot, especially if Taylor Swift is around. If you win it all, go ahead grab the trophy, and then get lost in the confetti. Don’t throw anything but a tantrum. No pronouncements unless your coach will be fired. We’ll know why anyway, the won-loss record will be there. Be faceless, the team on the field will show if you care. Be appreciative of your toy. But, please, let someone else play with it. Don’t treat your employees as servants. Or even something more degrading.

If you want to call a press conference to take the credit, also be adult enough to take the blame. It’s the least you can do. You own both sides of the coin after all. You may have to admit a mistake. That’s OK, your players do all the time.

Even if you tell them to buy their uniforms and wash them. Even that. Own it.

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