Recently, sports fans’ relationship with the games they love to watch and those who play them has become a fragile one. A quick glance around just the teams I love is not a pretty one, if being viewed through the moral prism used so frequently by sports writers (When did sports writers become the moral authority anyway? I thought that was Tony Dungy’s job). At Washington State, two players were arrested when 38 marijuana plants were found in their house and one-time-hero-turned-punchline Ryan Leaf once again found himself in the headlines for the wrong reasons when a Sports Illustrated story was released detailing the payments he accepted from an agent. The Wizards are again in the news because of Gilbert Arenas doing something dumb. Although no gun play was involved this time, he is claiming to have faked an injury so that another player could start a preseason game. Dumb is clearly not a strong enough word for “Agent Zero” or whatever he calls himself these days. The Bengals are dealing with a case of mistaken identity with Adam “Pacman” Jones, who has previously claimed he is being profiled by Cincinnati cops. Jones’ transgressions are, of course, well documented and underscore the deteriorating image of athletes as heroes.
These are just a handful of incidents on a handful of teams, but they are a microcosm of a larger problem affecting the sports landscape. Tiger Woods and now Brett Favre have shown that even those who were placed on the highest of pedestals can have their images forever tarnished in the eyes of those who once cheered them. The last decade, in particular, has ushered in a new wave of media that make it virtually impossible for today’s high profile athletes to suffer a misstep without the world knowing about it. It’s reasonable to assume that the behavior of professional athletes in eras gone by was somewhat similar to that of today’s athlete. They had the benefit, however, of not worrying about images of their carousing being snapped on a cell phone and posted immediately to an audience of millions on the internet. Lacking that benefit of the doubt, rarely does a day go by without at least one story being published that puts an athlete in a negative light.
The question for sports fans then becomes, “Should I care?” Is it OK to root like crazy for someone to succeed between the lines if they are less than pious outside them? For many, a hard line is drawn. There is a population of people who will never again root for Tiger Woods or Kobe Bryant. For the most part, this population is a group of people commonly referred to as “women”. Just kidding, ladies. There are surely many others who no longer wish to lend their support to today’s delinquent athlete, whatever the nature of their incident. I don’t begrudge people who take this stance. Like anything else, they are entitled to their opinion. For me, there is no connection to my role as a fan and the behavior (or misbehavior) of professional athletes. I love sports for many reasons, but appreciating my favorite players for being upstanding citizens is not one of them.
A huge number of the people who play sports for a living are generous, hard working individuals with spotless police records and a distinguished history of community service. Good for these people. In no way do I think their stories should go untold. It would surely help the perception of major sports in this country if the coverage of their lives outweighed the coverage of those who are arrested or have pictures of their genitalia plastered all over the World Wide Web. Realistically, though, more people will watch or read a story about Brett Favre’s johnson than they will about the philanthropic efforts of Charlie Batch. This may be more of an indictment on what interests the public than it is a reflection of athletes’ behavior, but that is the environment in which we find ourselves.
The irrational desire I have for my teams to win games is well documented. The reasons for that desire are myriad and are probably best explored by a paid professional with a degree in psychology hanging on their wall. Whatever the reasons are, they supersede my concern over indecent behavior by the men who comprise those teams. If their crime or stupidity gets them suspended or kicked off the team, I will no longer root for them. Until that time, I wish to see them succeed in their pursuit of victory. I dislike Gilbert Arenas, but not because he brought a gun in the locker room. I dislike Gilbert Arenas because he is the highest paid Washington Wizard and he stinks. I root for Tiger Woods not because he’s a sexual deviant. I root for Tiger Woods because he’s the greatest golfer I’ve ever seen and the sport is infinitely more exciting to me when he is in contention. There are some exceptions, of course. I hate Ben Roethlisberger as a person and also hate him because he’s a Steeler. If he played for the Bengals, I’d still most likely hate him as a person, but find a way to justify his presence on the team and be fully prepared to cheer him on when his suspension ended.
The bottom line is that as a constituent of the human race, I do not condone the behavior of those who mistreat women, dogs or anything else, regardless of their profession. As a constituent of the sports fan base, I just want to see my teams to win and enjoy the experience. If I were to combine the two ways of thinking and not root for those that are of substandard character, I’m afraid there would be no teams left that I could support.
