Beating of Football Player Causes Media Hard-On

Seahawks starting safety Ken Hamlin won't be hurling his body at opposing ballcarriers anytime soon. His head is broken after someone beat the hell out of him in front of a Pioneer Square club. Hamlin, according to witnesses, started the fight, but he evidently was not the one who finished it. Hamlin's got a brain clot and a fractured skull and is lucky to be alive. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

According to S.P.D. statistics, someone gets beat up in Pioneer Square nearly every day. Through August, there were 52 aggravated assualts and 128 non-aggravated assaults in the blocks west of I-5 between Yesler and Jackson Streets. That's more than five assaults per week.

But, because this victim was a Seahawks player, the media is all over it. In the Times, Steve Kelley wonders whether sports stars are targets. The P-I asks online readers: Is Pioneer Square Unsafe?. KOMO-TV procured video of the fight.

With apologies to Hamlin and his family, there are two groups of people that are rueing this event:

1. Seahawks fans. Hamlin was one of the team's best defensive players, he'll be replaced by inexperienced Marquand Manuel.

2. Pioneer Square club owners. A la the Mardi Gras riots, Pioneer Square club owners must likely prepare for a long media cycle of investigative reports, almost assuredly capped off by a Ken Schram editorial.

In other news, the world's smallest violin is playing just for Ichiro.