On Tuesday in class we spoke at length about the idea of sport as a religious experience for some fans. One of the characteristics that came out in class and in the reading by Bain-Selbo is the idea of sports figures as “gods” or figures to emulate and “worship”. While, with a lot of athletes, we may “worship” or desire their physical power and ability, this worship often leads to something very undesirable for both fans and athletes: the fall from grace.
Athletes are human – they will make mistakes, and we should accept this of them, but the high profile nature of their jobs often leads to very public question of their morals and values. Frequently we are bombarded with stories about sports figures that take performance enhancing drugs, cheat on their spouses, have violent altercations, or are in compromising situations, leading people to question them as role models.
Alex Rodriguez (the third basemen for the New York Yankees) was seen as one of the most talented players in baseball. He was the youngest player to hit 500 home runs and has had 14 seasons where he had over 100 runs batted in – he is a talented offensive and defensive player. In 2009 it was revealed that from 2001-2003 Rodriguez took banned substances, specifically, steroids – these were also some of his best seasons. This has led to a lot of debate within the baseball community about whether his records should stand, since for a significant portion his most productive years playing he was not playing honestly. The steroid controversy in baseball has also led to general cynicism of any player who has a great season – there are a lot of assumptions passed that any player having a break-out season must be “juicing” – and I believe a lot of this attitude stems to the fall from grace of a lot of major players.
With this also come the stories of redemption. Josh Hamilton, an outfielder for the Texas Rangers, was drafted in 1999, and was considered one of the best prospects of that year until drug and alcohol abuse derailed his career. He was in and out of rehab from 2004 to 2006 – he has been sober since 2006 (with one slip in 2009) and become very open about faith being the key to his reform. He was able to return to play in 2007, and has become a powerful and noteworthy player. Part of his story is the redemption (his teammates even celebrate with ginger-ale instead of champagne to support his efforts to stay clean), and his open address of this has allowed him to be redeemed within the baseball community.
Players are simply human, and I think sometimes fans lose sight of this. They mess up, just like everyone else, but do so in a much more public fashion. We should hold public figures to a standard of being good role models, but I think to elevate them past that will almost always leave the fans disappointed.
4 comments:
It's ironic that we watched Friday Night Lights and had to passively witness Street's spinal injury, only to see almost the exact same thing being played out on the ice to Habs player Max Pacioretty.
There is an enormous amount of heat being laid on the player who caused the damage, Zdeno Chara, and whether he did it purposely or not. The debate on Chara is unbelievable because I do believe that he is human, and maybe it was just a complete accident/mistake. Although I have read that there has been some bad blood between the two players for a while, I just can't believe any human being would want to cause another that much harm for just a stupid game of hockey. It really makes me wonder how anyone can call sports a religious experience when players are constantly being injured for what? A paycheque. Look at Sidney Crosby, he’s had a concussion and has missed a lot of games in the season from it.
You mention that athletes are humans and they make mistakes and “the high profile nature of their jobs leads to questions of their morals and values” and this is being played out with Chara. His morals and values are completely being questioned by speculators debating whether or not it was intention, and why the heck he decided to smash him (sorry I don’t know hockey lingo) there of all places? Let’s say he did hit him intentional at a clearly marked-dangerous spot, will his status as a godly hockey player be revoked? Or will he be that ballsy bastard who got away with hockey’s version of murder, and be celebrated quietly because he got away virtually unscathed by the whole event? I can’t even begin to fathom why Chara hasn’t even issued a public apology yet, knowing that there are police investigations occurring, and major corporations threatening to pull out of the NHL, which is a huge blow to the whole sport. He really caused a stir and he’s managed to stay quiet during all of this which in itself is questionable in his attitude towards his actions. He is human nad he does make mistakes but isn’t apologizing the right thing to do at this point? He certainly isn’t being a good role model at this point. When will he finally come out of darkness and seek his redemption from fans, corporations and members of the NHL?
The sad thing is, the trauma to Pacioretty's brain is probably going to effect him in the long run, especially if he receives another brutal hit in his career (which is likely if he continues playing hockey for the next ten or so years).
Thank you so much for your comment, Georgia!
Violence in sports is the one place that I personally have real trouble with athletes – particularly when you look at an instance like what happened between Pacioretty and Chara. I think actions like this are irresponsible by athletes because of the extreme nature of the violence – if it was an accident then Chara should have said so right away. Accidents do happen, and sometimes the outcome is unfortunate, but is understandable that it was an accident. (There was a case in baseball last July where a player was sliding into second base, and as he was sliding he hit his head off of the second baseman’s knee – he was out for the rest of the season with a concussion, but after all the reviews both players said it was clearly just an unfortunate accident.) Something like a dirty check, or hitting from behind, though, is quite different and usually quite intentional, and its violent nature is something that I don’t think we should accept from our athletes. These sports are physical, and there is an inherent risk that athletes take because of the physical nature of the job – there is a difference, however, from being a physical game and a dirty game.
The problem with this is, however, that violence sells. The number of people who seem to watch hockey only for the fights I find personally shocking, and it only seems to have gotten worse in recent years. I think that hockey players as a community need to stand up and say this is not okay – they are role models for young hockey players, and they need to exemplify that this is not the point of the game. I think Air Canada’s response to this might be the only thing that potentially will change the culture – they are threatening to pull their support from the NHL (which is quite substantial) if a serious good faith attempt to change this culture isn’t made.
I think unless the NHL and the owners of the NHL teams are hit in their wallet, they won’t demand the change from their athletes because the violence sells so many tickets. It is sad that cash is trumping safety.
Hey Leah!
Please check out my response to your blog. The link is below:
http://marica-christianityandpopularculture.blogspot.com/2011/03/response-to-leahs-athletes-and-fall.html
Here is a link to this response posted on my blog:
http://homertheheretic.blogspot.com/2011/03/response-athletes-and-fall-from-grace.html
Leah,
Great post! I agree with you in that the worshipping of sports figures as “gods” can lead to the undesirable fall from grace. Athletes are humans too. Olympic athletes are people who live next to you. . . or sit next to you in class. Although there is the possibility that these people may make mistakes and these errors in judgment will likely be made public, I don’t think idolizing sports figures is such a bad thing. They represent very important values – hard work, determination, persistence and the list goes on. In the overwhelmingly obese North America that we live in today, I believe these athletes can also help promote healthy, active lifestyles.
In response to your original post, Marica (above) suggested that athletes who take performance enhancing drugs may do so to fulfill the image that fans place upon them. I would have to disagree with this. I don’t think athletes engage in banned practices to enhance performance to meet the expectations of fans; I believe they do so for their own selfishness and greed. If an athlete claimed to take banned substances or engage in illegal performance-enhancing practices as a result of their fans’ expectations, I would have to say it is more likely that it is the result of an athlete’s in own skewed perceptions of fan expectations. Expectations from fans are inevitable. If a person is competing in professional leagues, as unfortunate as it may be, they have become mere commodities that can be traded or sold.
This discussion of athletes as role models reminds me of last week’s talk about musicians as role models. If I were to compare both groups, I would have to say that on average, athletes are more positive role models for the general public than most pop stars or rap artists. What both groups have in common is that they all chose to be in the professions they are in. They worked hard for their dreams knowing full-well that they would be public figures. If they are willing to remain in their professions, they must all accept the fact that the public viewing them as role models is unavoidable. By accepting this, they should act accordingly based on what kind of person they would like to be perceived as. Too often, the mistakes people make are justified under the notion that “they are human and all humans make mistakes.” Yes, they are human. But no, they must understand that as professional athletes, should they make mistakes, the world will know about it.
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