Written by Robby Carriger
Did you hear the news about Tiger Woods? OF COURSE YOU DID. We all have.
In fact, we have all been bombarded for the last two weeks with constant updates on what Tiger is doing, where he has been and whom he has text messaged. It is getting hard to remember if Woods is the best golfer in the world or Audrina’s new boyfriend on “The Hills.” But such is the life of a professional athlete in America these days.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am an aspiring sports journalist graduating in a week with a degree in broadcasting, so keeping sports in the news is in my best interest. With that said, how far is too far?
I remember the days when I could turn on Sportscenter and actually watch highlights and updates, not gossip and paparazzi pictures. My love affair with sports began long before the one Tiger had, but as of late my joy in sports is starting to sour.
Of course, it is only natural to glorify athletes to levels beyond what we should, but what we need to realize is that these are ordinary people like you and me who are faced with situations completely out of the ordinary, so before we crucify them as horrible people, we need to take into account they are human. I am not condoning any actions of anyone, I am just saying as a society we need to look to people other than athletes, actors and celebrities as role models, but that is a tangent for another time.
The whole point of this article is simple; let’s get back to sports. Obviously with the nature of media today, anything an athlete does will be news, but can we not just accept these people for what they are… ordinary people with extraordinary talent? We as fans are sick of the gossip storylines, the finger pointing and the trash that bumps our actual highlights off the front page. Here are just a couple of the storylines that are far too played out.
Steroids
Yes, the cheating in professional sports, namely baseball, is reprehensible. Yes, I would prefer if professional athletes were free of performance enhancing drugs. But is that the most important thing to me? NO. I know I am not the only one sick of the Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds sagas. I know I am not the only one who heard the phrase “Mitchell Report” and said “enough already!” And I know I am not the only one to cheer a player formerly accused of /found guilty of steroid use on one of my favorite teams. While I support and respect the efforts of professional sports to clean up, I do not need to hear about a middle reliever who juiced up in 1998. New testing is in place and is more effective than any method before it, so let’s put our faith in those in charge and enjoy what we see on the field, not question who is cheating and who isn’t.
Infidelity
The Tiger Woods debacle is just the latest in the “which athlete is cheating on his spouse” series. Certainly we remember the whole Alex Rodriguez fiasco over the last year and countless other incidents of extramarital affairs. Here’s the thing. Cheating is not limited to famous athletes. People cheat every day, and often it’s the person you would least expect. As much of a tragedy as this is, it is not newsworthy. It is a private matter that needs to be handled as such. Situations such as Tiger’s current one are volatile enough without constant updates and television coverage. Yes, the athlete made a mistake, but we should allow him to work on his personal lives without making him a national headline.
I love sports, and I hope to make a living by reporting on them. However, I want to talk about touchdowns and home runs, not needles and home wreckers. Sports are an amazing part of our lives, but the men who play them are just that, men. They are bound to make mistakes and let us down. So rather than glorify them as celebrities and role models, we need to just look at them as regular guys with special talent. If we do this we can hopefully get back to the way things used to be, watching the games strictly for the enjoyment and beauty of the sport.
