August 30, 2008 --
A NEW book aimed at female fans of pro sports argues that star male athletes shouldn't be given a hard time for bedding as many hot babes as possible.
"We want them to be these aggressive, fierce competitors . . . Aggressive conduct makes for exciting games, gets the crowd going and, of course, sells tickets," write Erica Boeke and Chris De Benedetti in "Gameface: The Kick-Ass Guide for Women Who Love Pro Sports," published by Virgin.
"So how can we expect these guys to be vicious and violent, and then flip a switch and be upstanding citizens in every aspect of their lives? . . . Pro players have big money, enormous fame and larger than life egos. Why wouldn't they have sex with 1.2 women per day if they could?"
That last crack is a sly nod to NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain, who notoriously claimed to have slept with 20,000 women and boasted, "At my age, that equals out to having sex with 1.2 women a day, every day, since I was 15 years old."
The authors acknowledge that athletes pay a big price for their sexploits. "Kobe Bryant will forever be tied to the 2003 rape allegations from his 19-year-old accuser in Vail. Tom Brady will always be known as the conservative Catholic quarterback who left the pregnant and gorgeous model-turned-actress Bridget Moynahan in 2007 for supermodel-turned-bad-actress Gisele Bundchen," the book observes.
The authors also recount numerous salacious sex scandals. Mike Tyson served three years in jail for raping a beauty queen; Dodgers and Padres star Steve Garvey, after a messy divorce from Cyndy Garvey, knocked up two women at the same time. And star Yankee pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich swapped wives - and families - in 1973, prompting team GM Lee McPhail to crack, "We may have to call off Family Day."
