In our idol worshipping society, people often confuse celebrity with heroism. In the case of sports, it is too easy to call our favorite athletes our heroes. At best, they are role models, at worst they are not worthy of their fame.
Ricky Williams, the Heisman Trophy winning running back for the Miami Dolphins, tested positve for drugs this week for the FOURTH time in his brief career. He faces a one year ban from football.
Tony Stewart, defending NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion, bragged about purposely trying to wreck fellow driver Matt Kenseth while going 190 MPH during the Daytona 500 just days after whining to NASCAR officials about needing to crack down on aggressive drivers who were "going to get somebody killed soon."
Bode Miller, overhyped olympic skier who admitted skiing drunk on occasion, has failed to medal in any of the four events he was favored to win in Torino, Italy.
When I was a kid, my heroes included O.J. Simpson, Pete Rose, and Richard Petty. One is a murderer, one is banned from baseball for life, and the last has become a true hero only after retiring from driving his race car. Richard Petty, along with his son Kyle and Kyle's wife Patti created the Victory Junction Gang Camp in memory of Kyle and Patti's son Adam who died in a crash during practice for a race. The Camp was built as a retreat for kids with serious illnesses. It even has a medical center. Kids get to attend the camp for free (including medical care.) Most of the drivers in NASCAR have contributed in one way or another to help the kids and the camp. Richard Petty, the King of NASCAR donated 40 acres of land and untold sums of money and hard work toward building the camp. Despite their unimaginable loss, Kyle and Patti have created a lot of positives as a result of a terrible tragedy. That's heroism.
Do the world a favor, teach your children that doctors, teachers, and firefighters are heroes, not superstar athletes who lack a sense of responsibility for their actions because of their skewed perception of reality created in part by their fans' misplaced admiration. With the exception of what athletes do outside of their sport to make the world a better place, very few qualify as heroes based on what they do for a living, no matter how well they do it.
3 comments:
Who doesn't ski drunk?
SH- tell MD to jump on the Cal Edwards bandwagon.
VF- as your manager I would advise you to avoid any sport that could potentially damage that creative brain of yours.
JP- I play disc golf drunk and nearly naked and I AM a hero. Drunken disc sports rule!
The typo should have read, "Carl" not "Cal", although that sounds like a good racing name.
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