The Great Divide…Athletes and the Public

January 25, 2017

When you give millions of dollars to a young athlete in the world of professional sports, please don't be shocked when you hear about them getting caught doing ridiculous activities. Money, fame, idolization, special privileges are the age-old recipe for a spiral down the hole of shame. As much as all of this frivolity gets reported, the more it keeps happening. There are endless amounts of TMZ type reporting just waiting for these athletes to misstep so that they can fill their pages with juicy slander. The cycle stays in motion as long as new material exists to feed it.

I can't imagine someone giving me a million dollars when I was young. When you grow up in a situation where money is scarce and then all of a sudden you are surrounded by a posse of friends, what do you think could happen? On the contrary, you have the opposite effect: kids who grew up with a lot of wealth and privilege. This upbringing can manifest into spoiled brat syndrome, and the young person becomes an unleashed monster. The team management must send in their handlers to help reign in the malcontents before the situations implode into a quagmire.

I can understand professional athletes needing to shield themselves from an overzealous clamoring fan base and their attempt to ask for their time. Professional athletes are working in a high-pressure situation in which most of them can be replaced very suddenly. Injuries and a few subpar performances can send guys and girls packing.

Social media and the twenty-four-seven press can push a lot of the pro athletes into hiding. The last thing an athlete wants is to be seen in a bar drinking a beer with his mug shot on Facebook. These athletes also have endorsement deals that can't show them in a bad light. The advertising money is thrown around in bunches, and with it comes the expectation of representing the products with dignity. The days of seeing your favorite athletes signing autographs at the shopping mall or a car lot are few and far between.

The more popular the athlete doesn't mean they receive more news. Bad boys and girls will garner more attention because of the gossipy nature of their lifestyle. Young kids want to wear the clothing styles that some of these athletes represent and wear their jerseys.

Not all professional athletes feel they owe nothing to society and don't care about being role models. The ones who do a lot of charity work and do wonderful things for their community are rarely mentioned. As long as some player gets pulled over for drunk driving, the story to report a great deed will be put into the backseat. It's sad, but it is no different from all society. Good news will receive the five-minute mention at the end of newscasts. Oh well, enjoy those five minutes of good news cause this might be all you will see.