The ongoing battle of image vs. stereotype in regards to athlete’s behavior. Leigh Steinberg
The proliferation of mass media brings examples of athletic misbehavior to our attention on a daily basis. Newspapers with their "jurisprudence" sections and the daily sportswire, television, talk radio, and internet sites compete with each other to trumpet the latest assortment of domestic violence, drunk driving, gunplay, and NCAA violations.
ICON For every Kenny Britt (left), there are several players who never run into any issues.
This cacophony of "athletes as thugs" reporting would lead one to believe that off-field athletic conduct has disintegrated into lawlessness and out of control behavior. Fans compare current athletes to the pristine days of yesteryear and bemoan the decline in the standards of conduct. The problem with highlighting every misadventure of thousands of high school, collegiate and professional athletes and coaches is that it unfairly maligns the overwhelming majority of players who lead disciplined, law-abiding lives as role models.
The "good old days" were a myth. When athletes in the 1950's beat up their wives, had multiple affairs, engaged in drunken revelry and destroyed property, sportswriters covered for them and did not report it. Writers followed a "gentlemen's code" and left private conduct private. These writers were heavily dependent on access to players and—subsidized with food and travel by football owners—did not report that a starting quarterback was a racist, philandering, alcoholic wife beater. The universally read daily newspaper was the main source of information for fans and acted like a fan club for sports.
The repetitive news cycle of 2011 takes the same story and delivers it a hundred times a day. One incident is magnified by repetition. After seeing LAPD officers beat up Rodney King on videotape thousands of times, the impression is created that the LAPD beats up black motorists all day every day. Ryan Leaf may have had his problems, but after seeing the tape over and over of him yelling at a reporter in the locker room one time, it created the impression that Leaf was belligerent and disturbed every day.
Remember when Governor Howard Dean elevated his speaking tone in a post-primary speech? It was repeated hundreds of times and completely undercut his image as a potential Presidential contender.
When this process occurs with athletes, it creates a lifetime impression based on limited behavior and distorts the overall picture of athletes as a whole.
Please understand that I think that athlete's have a powerful role to play in triggering imitative behavior. They are held up as role models and need to carefully conduct their conduct. One incident is too many. I think that athletic misbehavior disillusions kids and alienates fans. This is why I have insisted that clients be active role models and retrace their pasts to the high school, collegiate and professional communities and set up charitable programs and foundations.
High school scholarship funds, collegiate repayments and hundreds of foundations tackling societal problems are the lasting legacy of athletes. I have spent almost forty years working with socially responsible athletes.
We are looking at a sample of thousands of young men and women as they change from adolescents and college students into responsible adults. Young people tend to think they are omnipotent, have poor judgment at times and need maturation. A negative incident can be a learning experience. Remember the worst thing you ever did prior to age 30 and think whether it is responsible to throw young athletes onto the trash heap.
I received immense criticism for sticking with Ricky Williams through his earlier adventures. But my job was to help get him to a more responsible and fulfilling place in life—not to publicly condemn him—and I can think of dozens of other redemption stories.
Ricky Williams battled back from some notable off-the-field issues.
We are dealing with a massive sample of young athletes. Any athlete who plays or has played at the high school, collegiate or professional level or engages in Olympic competition is considered newsworthy. Coaches make the sample even larger. If we compare the hundreds of thousands of athletes in these categories to the same number of young businessmen, construction workers or even just young men in their twenties, I guarantee you the number of misbehaving athletes is much less. We test college athletes at the combines and know that the rate of drug use is much lower than in the past.
Statistically speaking, athletic behavior can be shown to be vastly improved from the past. The amount of money and risk involved has made athletes more cautious. I can compare current clients to those in the 70’s and tell you empirically that there is less alcohol abuse, drug use and domestic violence.
Steroids were a frightening epidemic in football during the 70’s and 80’s that has largely disappeared. We advise athletes on the dangers of being involved in drunk driving or alcohol related fights. We try and counsel them that firearms belong on a firing range or deer hunt. The Players Associations run seminars for rookies that describe techniques for avoiding high-risk situations.
When a pro football player arises sober and clear-headed in the morning and nurtures his family, gives peak performance on the field, graciously signs autographs, spends time and energy on charitable programs, drives home again in a safe and sober condition—that is not news. Yet the overwhelming majority of athletes do just that. Any aberration from this behavior IS news and we are then fed an unremitting diet of contract hassles, drunk driving, gun violence and corrupt college athletes—as if that was a realistic picture of day-to-day life in the world of sports.
That distortion damages the tender bond between athletes and fans. The real picture is so much happier.
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