It's the 19th anniversary of the Monica Seles attack this past week. Of course, her case and Nancy Kerrigan's are well known, but other athletes have been attacked for a variety of reasons, some due to their fame, others simply random robberies.

Given the near-fanatical fan base of many sports teams, as well as the high visibility of lots of players these days, do you think most athletes take enough precautions to protect themselves?

I would guess that they do take precautions. There are really relatively few atheletes attacked because of their celebrity as far as I know. The two cases you cite both occurred almost 20 years ago. I don't think any one victimized by a random attack should count in this discussion.

I read that about 5 years ago there was an upsurge in attacks on football players in the form of attempted robberies. This has been attributed to the life style of the athletes involved, i.e., flashing cash, wearing 10s of thoussands of dollars in jewelry.

Of course, one of the most famous cases of crime against a celebrity athlete is that of Eddie Waitkus, who was shot by an 'adoring' fan in 1949.

I'm sure they do take precautions, like many celebrities began doing after the Reagan, Lennon, and Schaefer shootings involving deranged fans. I wonder, though, if the fact that so much time has elapsed between those cases and now with so few attacks on athletes has led to any relaxation of that security.

Of course, certainly Shawn Johnson's stalking case could have culminated in an attack had Robert O'Ryan not been caught before he could get that close to her. I'm not sure if the Sinha case was a random attack or if her robbers knew who she was, since they were never caught. Could have been either scenario.

The flashy lifestyle is not a good idea for anyone, I agree. Remember Jack Whittaker, the Powerball winner who carried cash all the time and got robbed of over $700,000 in two separate incidents? It's definitely better not to flaunt it, athlete or not!

Steinhagen was completely crazy! Waitkus was extremely lucky to have survived the attack. I've read that PTSD hit him hard afterward, though. Sad for someone to survive an attempt on their life only to have it basically destroyed anyway by the trauma.

Thanks for your comments!