The Bucs hired private investigators to check out Winston, who’d been accused of, but not charged with, sexual assault. Twice he was exonerated by prosecutors, and once by the university after a probe by a Florida state supreme court justice found insufficient evidence to charge Winston with sexual assault. This was a great test of the innocent-till-proven-guilty mantra in the American justice system, and the authorities could not prosecute Winston.
– Peter King, MMQB (May 4, 2015)
Despite terrible reviews, the fourth Transformers movie, Transformers: Age of Extinction, grossed over one billion dollars worldwide. The last two films in this franchise both crossed the billion-dollar mark in worldwide receipts, and the franchise has made over $3.6 billion in theaters. This was a great test of the money-rules-critics-drool(s) mantra of the pop-culture universe.
The 2014 Kansas City Royals had one of the worst offenses in all of baseball. They were 9th in the American League in runs scored, 10th in OPS, and dead last in both walks and home runs. However, on the back of their above average pitching staff & some timely hitting, they won the AL Central and came within one game of winning the World Series. This was a great test of the validity of the MLB playoff system as an arbiter of excellent baseball teams.
As a congressman in the Philippines, boxer Manny Pacquiao opposed legislation that would mandate sex education, subsidize contraception, and expand family-planning offerings. He also spoke out against same-sex marriage, reportedly owes millions in back taxes, and allegedly assaulted a fellow politician. However, his many shortcomings couldn’t hold a candle to the repeated-assault-and-battery skeletons hiding in plain sight in Floyd Mayweather’s closet. As a result, their championship bout this past weekend was a great test of the whoever-wins-we-all-lose (and-both-boxers-make-tons-of-money-anyway) truism.
On August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. In the entire altercation, Wilson fired a total of twelve bullets, with at least six shots striking Brown. Brown was unarmed. The Brown shooting was just one of A St. Louis County grand jury elected not to indict Wilson for the shooting, and an FBI investigation cleared Wilson of any civil rights violations in the shooting. A GoFundMe campaign to in honor of Wilson, who lost his job following the shooting, raised over half a million dollars before the campaign was shut down. This entire incident was a great test of the the-world-is-fair truism, and is definitely not going to ever happen again. Ever.
Sports Illustrated’s Peter King was awarded the Dick McCann Memorial Award for his writing in 2009 and named National Sportswriter of the Year for 2010 by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. However, he’s come under fire of late for his out-of-touch observations and his purported tendency to “carry water” for the NFL. In the past week, he’s come under fire for his “out-of-touch” and “intellectually dishonest” and “downright bizarre” interpretations of both the Jameis Winston sexual assault persecution and the mental health concerns of Dallas Cowboys draftee Randy Gregory:
Here’s the part where @SI_PeterKing referred to depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder as “character flaws” pic.twitter.com/KS1X0b42Ix
— Aaron W. Gordon (@A_W_Gordon) May 4, 2015
Clearly, this was a great test of both the haters-gonna-hate dictum and the ironically-named Peter Principle.
Peter King has written for Sports Illustrated since 1989. In 2005, New Jersey Governor Richard Codey appointed King to a fact finding task force in an attempt to end steroid and human growth hormone use in high school athletics. He reportedly prefers the Ethan Hawke / Selena Gomez / Jon Voight thriller Getaway and the Ice Cube / Martin Henderson / Adam Scott action-adventurer Torque over any of the Fast & Furious films.