The End of Sports as We Know Them
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Remember when an athlete could throw his fiancee off a balcony and still be considered the greatest of all time?
When did it change? When did we deserve to know about the personal lives of professional athletes more than we deserve to know about the personal lives of our friends, neighbors and coworkers?
Did this start with O.J.? And how did it get to the point where we now need to know who beat their wife, who beat a stripper, and who let their canines do the beating for them?
In sports today, image is undoubtedly and no less than everything. It seems as if nobody is willing to look at how a person does on the field anymore. Rockymount7 said that he would never draft Mike Vick in a fantasy football league ever again, and several others explained that they would never let their children wear a Vick jersey after his alleged involvement in a dog-fighting ring.
It's no longer about how well they play on the field. It doesn't matter that Vick is a horrible fantasy option to begin with or that I would never be caught dead in a Vick jersey because he's the single most overrated player in the NFL.
Most people want Mark McGwire shut out of the Hall of Fame because he's an alleged 'roider, not because in 16 seasons he amassed only 1,626 hits.
David Stern instated the infamous NBA dress code because he thought the decline in the league's popularity was due to his players looking thuggish but failed to address that traveling and illegal defense violations are an absolute joke. Let their defense be illegal, David, nobody plays it anyway!
A lot of fans didn't want Randy Moss to be traded to Green Bay because of the "mooning incident" a few years ago, but what about the fact that he's an all-time top 10 wide receiver?
When has a person's image ever affected their ability on the field? Would you not completely forgive a person if they led your favorite team to a World Championship? As superficial as it is, of course you would, because that's their job. That's what they get paid to do.
Tim Donaghy's allegations are entirely different. His personal life crossed that line. His personal life may have directly altered the game itself. This is why David Stern's situation is so unenviable.
Why has ESPN become so entertainment oriented? Because sports have become soap operas. It's easy for Bill Simmons to draw analogies from TV shows because it's not about the sport anymore. We need to know who's the only athlete that's not a jerk.
Athlete A doesn't donate to charity. Who cares? How many millionaires in this country do you know that do? Athlete B doesn't like to sign autographs. Who cares? Agoraphobia is a very common fear.
I say, what about Athlete C, who retires from one team for the sole purpose of signing with another team? Or Athlete D, who refuses to play for a team because the city he plays in doesn't receive enough exposure?
The moment we worry too much about Athletes A and B and not enough about Athletes C and D will mark the end of the sports world as we know it.
Do you feel fine?
