Not even Sharpton backed Arenas

It's been a newsy day in Washington sports. First the new head coach of the Redskins, Mike Shanahan, was rolled out for his introductory press conference. Then just hours later, NBA star guard, Gilbert Arenas, was suspended from the Wizards.

The Arenas situation involving gun play in the locker room was spiraling out of control in recent days. The NBA commissioner finally took action. Read about it here.

One of the most surprising things about the whole Arenas gun-totting mess came a couple days ago when the Rev. Al Sharpton actually said that "Agent 0" wasn't being dealt with harsh enough. Sharpton, who is known for defending folks based on race, actually took a stance against a fellow African-American. Amazing.

The civil rights spokesman's logic was a bit convoluted and still somewhat race-tinged, but I applaud Sharpton for finally using some sense of fairness and rationality in judging right from wrong. In brief, what Sharpton said was that by officials not coming down on Arenas, they were essentially sending a message that gun play is expected and even accepted when it comes to black athletes.