Darren Sharper Catching Hell for Parking SUV in Handicapped Space

I try not to get too involved in gossip-type stuff, but this one is too rich to ignore.

Minneapolis Star Tribune "gossip" "columnist" C.J. writes regularly for the newspaper and its website. You may have read about some recent journalistic work of hers.

Needless to say, she's not going to threaten to steal Charles Gibson's job or anything like that. She fills her role at the newspaper, and the newspaper is smart enough not to assign her to cover anything serious.

In her latest hard-hitting investigation, C.J. tracked down Vikings safety Darren Sharper as he was showing up for a television appearance at a Twin Cities station.

Sharper must have been late, because he parked in a handicapped space. While he didn't respond to C.J.'s repeated attempts to get comment, she did track down a P.R. guy for the Vikings, who offered up a perfectly rational explanation.

Or not.

(Bob) Hagan groaned when informed of the handicapped parking matter: "Awww, are you going to go after him? Did he know it was that spot? ... All right," said Hagan. "Nothing I can do. But he's a very good guy. He does a lot of really good [charity] stuff. Obviously, if he did it, he did it. It was probably some misunderstanding."

(Give Hagan credit. At least he didn't try to use the "Some of Darren's best friends are handicapped" line on the "reporter".)

I'm all for leaving athletes alone when they're out and about, but I'm not about to condone an in-his-prime professional athlete parking in a space designated for use by the handicapped.

I don't care if he was going to be there 45 seconds and parked there at 3:30 in the morning.

That said, it's also not a terribly big deal, and I'm kind of amused it's getting major play on the newspaper's website. I guess gossip sells.