By the time I was still quite young, I was pretty certain that professional athlete was not going to be my future profession. It might have been my lack of speed, balance, coordination, and poor eyesight...i.e. every time a ball was hit to me in the outfield, I always took a step in, and it always soared right over my head...and I didn't possess what they call in professional sports, "closing speed". But this didn't stop me from having heroes to look up to in the world of athletics. In light of recent events, I think I'm glad I grew up when I did. From the time of the first professional athletes up until the mid 1970s, the public was not privy to the seamier aspects of our sports heroes. That was probably a good thing. A young beady-eyed kid like myself could idealize the great Tom Seaver, star pitcher for the New York Mets, and not be burdened by the idea he might...I don't know, I'll make something up that's so stupid and crazy that it could never happen. Something like, hitting your kid repeatedly with a tree branch, or punching out your fiancee in an elevator, you know, nothing that could ever really happen.
Unfortunately, this type of anti-social behavior is not reserved for athletes alone. Since I loved sports, but lacked the ability to excel in them, I thought that being a sportscaster would be the next best thing. My favorite announcer was the great Marv Albert. Marv was literally the voice of the Knicks. "Bradley, over to Frazier, from the top of the key....Yes!" Marv became a superstar in the world of sportscasting. He did the Rangers, local sports news in New York City, the NFL, the NBA, Whiffle-ball tournaments, whatever. But then, at the height of his success, his career came grinding to a halt. It seems that Marv had a thing for women's underwear. Apparently he enjoyed wearing them, he also apparently liked biting women as well. Woody Allen, another short nebbishy Jewish fellow had a thing for young asian women. The fact that she was essentially his adopted daughter apparently did not give him pause. Another noteworthy person whose work I looked up to, cut down to size by their inflated sense of ego and power. One day you're learning how to lay T'Fillin, the next day you're playing "hide the salami" with your sort of adopted daughter. It's a slippery slope.
As time has passed, we are finding out more and more about the "foibles" of past celebrities. Bad and downright criminal activity is nothing new, it's just that we didn't know what dirt-bags our so called heroes were. For example, silent film star Roscoe "Fatty Arbuckle saw his career ended when he allegedly raped an actress in his trailer. He was eventually found not guilty, but millions of "Fatties" (My made up nickname for his fan club) were forever disillusioned and had to now throw their adulation to one, Norman "Chubsy ubsy" Chaney of the "Little Rascals" fame. HIs career was also tragically cut short when he was found in his trailer with Ms. Crabtree. (In fairness, that's a slight exaggeration, in that, I made that up)
Shameful celebrity behavior knows no age range either. Paul "Pee-Wee Herman" Reubens was infamously caught master bating in a movie theatre in Florida, temporarily putting his career as a child entertainer on hold. Thanks a lot, "Moral Majority"! Not to be outdone, 80 year old comic actor, Fred Willard was caught doing the same. In a way, we can still look up to Willard, not only for his apparent virility, but for his throw-back approach to self-pleasure. Talk about going old school. "Who needs the internet and the privacy of my home? All I need is a comfy balcony chair, and an eleven dollar extra-large popcorn".
Perhaps no modern hero fell further from grace, then multi-Tour de-France winner and famed anti-cancer activist Lance Armstrong. Armstrong's story was a study in faith, and the perseverance of the human spirit. A man suffering from cancer of the everything, overcomes the dreaded disease and wins the Tour de-France seven times. As if this wasn't admirable enough, he would go on to establish and successfully operate his charity, "Livestrong", which dedicated itself to raising money and awareness to fight cancer. It was ultimately discovered that Armstrong had some help in winning his multiple titles. Help in the form of syringes filled with "juicy-juice", that made him unbeatable. He then lied and bullied others into lying for him so he could protect his reputation otherwise known as his "brand". Now he has become so grossly disgraced and unpopular, that Lance Armstrong has accomplished what here-to-fore had been thought to have been considered impossible. People have not only turned against Armstrong, they've turned against his charity. People have actually become pro-cancer!
The bar has become so low today for judging our modern athletes and celebrities, that when we praise one of them, we often offer as proof the idea that, "you know, he's never gotten into any trouble," much as we do when we praise our dogs for rarely peeing inside the house. Perhaps the problem is us? Maybe we are looking in the wrong place for our heroes. Maybe we only need to look as far as the people who raised us.
I'm not a religious man, but ancient man did present to the world a tablet for living called the "10 Commandments". I know this because I saw it in a great movie starring Charlton Heston called "Airport 75". In those rules for living, one of the top 10 did include something about honoring your mother and father. Obviously somebody thought they had a pretty important role to play in our lives. The role of father, the guy who was supposed to be every child's hero has been reduced to a stranger who never fails to disappoint. I can't help but wonder if all of these young superstar athletes who can't seem to refrain from beating up their wives and children were missing a strong male role model in their lives. Adrian Peterson has five children by three different women, that's approximately 1.3 children per woman. I know he's fast and all, but I don't think he can raise all of them at once. Maybe he wouldn't have to disseminate discipline via the tree branch if he, oh I don't know, lived with his children?
The real tragedy here isn't that professional athletes and entertainers aren't worth looking up to, the real tragedy is that they mirror society. Approximately 2% of all NFL players have brushes with the law, this is approximately the same percentage for the general public. Statistically, we now live in a nation where a majority of children are born to women who aren't married. Dan Quayle of all people criticized this back in the early '90s, and was ridiculed for pointing out the need for children to be raised by two parents. Maybe he was smarter than we thought......nah, I prefer the theory that even a broken clock is right twice-a-day.
I teach in a district where a lot of the children come from single parent homes. Some of them are practically raising themselves, and are dealing with issues that most of us never had to even think about in our wildest dreams when we were growing up. However, some of the mothers and fathers who do this difficult job on their own, raise fine and upstanding young men and women who any of us would be proud of, and these single Moms and Dads are all the heroes anybody will ever need.
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