JR 240 Third Blog Piece

Athletes Aren’t Role Models

Photo Rights to mamapop.com

Sports are polarizing by their very nature.  Fans (or “Fanatics”) of sports love to love their favorite teams and players, and they also love to hate their least favorites in those regards.  Growing up rooting for the Boston Red Sox (as I did) means the only two things worth saying are “Go Sox” and “Yankees Suck.”

We live in a sports world defined by love and hate, and while sometimes it can get out of hand, sports are by and large a big ball of fun.  That said, the sports media loves sensationalist sports stories just like any other news genre gravitates towards sensationalist stories.  As a result, we see teams in major markets get more coverage, and we see high profile athletes get built up as heroes and then torn down by the media all the time.  The way the media portrays athletes as larger-than-life cultural icons is pretentious and disruptive to society.

Photo Rights to golfweek.com

Tiger Woods is the perfect example of how quickly the sports media can turn on an athlete.  Tiger was the golden boy in the golf world for over a decade.  In the mid-90’s he was the prodigy of American golf, winning U.S. Amateurs and seamlessly transitioning into the professional world.  He became the most dominant athlete in sports, and coupled it with countless endorsements.  Tiger was the biracial poster child for a global sports icon, and everything changed on that fateful day Thanksgiving 2009 when he crashed his SUV and proceeded to engage in a lengthy, embarrassing divorce as a result of his infidelities.  The media proceeded to bash Tiger for months and made his entire private life available to the public.  Now clearly Mr. Woods was in the wrong and I’m not trying to diminish the severity of his sins by any stretch.  On the other hand, however, it was the media who was at fault for the massive public backlash against Tiger.  The media built him up into this perfect, model citizen-athlete when in reality he was as flawed as anyone else.  The media crucified Tiger for failing to be a role model when TIGER NEVER ASKED TO BE A ROLE MODEL, it was the media who wanted him to be a role model, created an aura around Tiger despite his largely unfriendly personality.  He was the most marketable athlete ever, and he failed to live up to the reputation the media set for him.

Photo Rights to Nike.com

Lance Armstrong and Manti Te’o are more recent examples of athletes going from zeroes to heroes through the lens of sports media.  Armstrong was an inspiration to millions of people, winning 7 consecutive Tour de France cycling races after defeating testicular cancer.  He founded the Livestrong company, which sold billions of yellow bracelets and other memorabilia to raise money for cancer research.   Despite rumors of blood doping and anabolic steroid use, Armstrong maintained for years that he was a clean cyclist (pretty much an oxymoron at this point).  Lo and behold, in 2013 he admitted to cheating and using performance enhancing drugs throughout his career, and was stripped of all his cycling honors and his affiliation with Livestrong. 

Te’o, the former Notre Dame Linebacker and Heisman Trophy finalist, earned as much recognition off the field as he did on it in 2012.  Two days before an early season game against Michigan St., Te’o’s grandmother AND girlfriend died ON THE SAME DAY.  The Hawaiian native played inspired football against MSU and proceeded to lead the Fighting Irish to an undefeated regular season.  His story inspired a lot of people who were dealing with the loss of a loved one, only it turned out the Te’o story had one major plot hole.  His girlfriend didn’t actually exist.  Now in the midst of preparing for the 2013 NFL Draft, Te’o has seen his stock drop significantly, and the hoax girlfriend melodrama remains unsolved.

The difference between Tiger’s fall from grace and that of Armstrong and Te’o is the way the athletes responded to the fame the media allowed them to attain.  While Tiger, ever an introvert, shied away from the fanfare and talked at minimum with reporters, Armstrong and Te’o soaked up the fame and embraced the attention.  Both of them tried using their celebrity for a good cause, and both times it backfired in their faces. 

As a golfer, a cancer research supporter, and a Notre Dame football fan, I have reasons to have idolized and been betrayed by all three athletes, yet I don’t feel that way at all.  I still root for Tiger Woods because he’s my favorite golfer; I was never a fan of him as a human being off the course.  I still support Armstrong because his greatest victory was his battle with cancer and the battles he helped others fight through the Livestrong foundation.  I never watched a minute of the Tour de France.  Te’o is still one of my all-time favorites at Notre Dame because regardless of his weird girlfriend story he was still a great linebacker who exhibited great leadership and sportsmanship at all times.  I’ve never seen the purpose of caring about the personal choices made by people I don’t know personally.  If I were a friend or a family member of Mr. Woods, Mr. Armstrong, or Mr. Te’o, I might feel differently.  They’re just athletes to me, and I admire them for what they do in their respective sports.

Everything else is just asking for trouble.

**Editorial**

Having a passion for a subject like this can definitely hurt your credibility as a journalist.  The important thing is to keep your arguments reasonable and to explain your opinion in a civilized, professional manner.  Yelling and screaming on TV is sometimes good for ratings, but that isn’t journalism.  It’s okay to have an opinion as a journalist as long as you remember that the opinions that matter are the opinions of your audience.