I’m both sorry and happy to say goodbye.

One of the greatest athletes of all time – men or women – is retiring at 40. Serena Williams will make her last appearance at the U.S. Open, which starts in late August.

Serena and her sister Venus set stuffy tennis on its collective ear when the public-courts phenoms took over the women’s game and soon were the most popular stars on television or in person.

Their childhood story and amazing playground training produced the two best players in the world in a game that grew popular with smaller women who played with more grace than power. The award-winning movie King Richard showed how the girls survived and got stronger in the tough neighborhoods of Compton, California.

Soon christened “Queen” by her fan base, Serena became bigger than her sister as the 23-time grand slam champion said she was going home to take care of her daughter and maybe have another baby. “If I was a man, I wouldn’t have to give any reason,” she said.

As much as we hate saying goodbye to a legend like Serena, a pro football player with two dozen accusations of sexual assault and misconduct should also say goodbye — for at least one full year.

Deshaun Watson, the former Clemson star, used millions in his personal football fortune to settle more than 20 of the cases out of court. But that doesn’t come close to the penalty meets the crime. The NFL personal conduct committee suspended Watson for his first six games of the 2022 season with the Cleveland Browns.

The NFL commissioner’s office has the right to review or appeal penalties. And commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday that Watson deserves a full season out of the game. Even though most of the abused women got some money, they will all carry lifelong scars of this time in their lives

My complaint about Watson, who by the way was supposedly a model student-athlete at Clemson, is that he should be charged in two areas, sexual assault and big-time disrespect.

What he did to these women may deserves even permanent banishment, and how brazenly he did it makes you wonder if he just didn’t care about them, at all.

 

Featured image via U.S. Open

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