“When I hear that a professional athlete is being charged with rape, my first thought isn’t that he’s the victim. Nor do I immediately envision some sort of vexing vixen preying on poor unsuspecting millionaire athletes in a hotel lobby. No, my first thought is to fear that a horrible crime has occurred … and to hope that I’m wrong. And, yes, that’s my first thought no matter how well I ‘know’ the athlete — whether that athlete is a ‘thug’ like (fill-in-the-blank with your NBA bad boy of choice), or a ‘solid citizen’ like Ray Allen or Kobe Bryant.” I haven’t said much about the Kobe case around here, and that’ll probably continue — It looks like it’s already degenerating into an ugly he-said-she-said type of case, with Kobe’s lawyers trying their damnedest to destroy the accuser’s credibility. I will say this, though: I agree with this column about the borderline-misogynist way sportscasters have been covering the case so far, and, legal presumption of innocence aside, I for one do think he’s guilty. In his scripted television denial, Kobe couldn’t even look at the camera (or at anybody but down) when he twice proclaimed his innocence. This is not the body language of an innocent man.