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January 22, 2010
Evan Luse
I went to the fridge the other night, leaned in and looked for a Gatorade. I took that cold first sip and realized something: Tiger Woods’ face was nowhere to be found.
In fact, Tiger has seemed to disappear from the face of the Earth all together. The only time I see those pearly white teeth of his is when some news reporter is updating the count of alleged mistresses he has. It struck me that I wasn’t actually surprised about the whole ordeal. I mean hey, what’s the big deal about another professional athlete falling from grace anyways?
As a young kid growing up it seems everyone has a favorite player in some sport or another. Everyone has a poster of an athlete in their room, a jersey with a favorite players name on it or maybe even a dusty box full of old baseball cards. In America, our professional athletes are held high as role models, but that doesn’t mean they actually live up to a higher standard.
Should it surprise you that Mark McGwire recently admitted to MLB network that he used steroids for “health purposes?” Should it surprise you that Michael Phelps was caught bong-handed last year after his record-breaking Olympic performance? Should it surprise you that David Stern has suspended Gilbert Arenas for having a gun in the team locker room?
Maybe it should. It seems the only thing the media is attracted to these days are negative stories that put former icons in a negative light. Where have all the good stories gone? Why wasn’t a big ruckus made when Shaquille O’Neal received the NBA Cares Community Assist Award for November because he became the spokesman for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots program? Why didn’t “Shaq-A-Claus” make the front page of the New York Times?
I know why. Its because some Americans are so obsessed with celebrities that I could find out when the last time Kobe Bryant clipped his fingernails. God forbid they be a tad bit too long and I might have to write a letter to Phil Jackson about it. Seriously, I think it would do us all some good if we stepped back and looked for some positives in the media today— especially the good that sports icons have done.
I bet you didn’t know that Mike Holmgren just spent a week in Mexico building homes for the underprivileged. Double or nothing that you didn’t know that since 1996 Derek Jeter’s “Turn 2” foundation has awarded more than $10 million in grants to promote healthy lifestyles for thousands of children. All bets aside, I can guarantee you’ve seen Peyton Manning on some commercial or maybe dancing on Saturday Night Live, but you didn’t know that his foundation “PeyBack” has been operational for over a decade.
See, there are great sports icons all around us and sometimes we flat out refuse to see them. We would rather hear about Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the leg than we would about the Miami Heat players visiting Holtz Children’s Hospital in Florida over the holidays.
It is true that professional athletes are in the spotlight, but we are the ones who control where that light is shed. In the upcoming year there are sure to be more stories about rich athletes who falter, but even more stories about athletes who do great things for their community. So go ahead, tape that poster back up, throw on that old jersey and dust off those cards— a great year of sports is sure to come. We have many great sports icons to watch, just make sure you actually see them.
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