With the introduction of a new era in technology and connectivity, the personal lives of our sports "heroes" have become much more visible over the last couple of years.Scandals such as that of Ben Roethlisburger's, Michael Vick's, Tiger Woods', and many others have been made much more public with the increased connectivity between the media and fans as well as players and fans. Fans can see into the personal lives of their favorite sports players pretty much any times they want. Because of this, there has been a definite change in the public perception of our most famous sports figures from gods to common men.
One major change in the way sports figures connect with fans is the website "Twitter" which dramatically shows the change in public perception I stated earlier. Players like Chad Ochocinco make tweets during games about hits and plays. Players such as ex-baseball star Jose Canseco just make themselves look pathetic (he begged for a tryout with the White Sox). Also, fans can communicate with players on a daily basis, changing sports players from far off figures to people close to us in our daily lives. This is both good and bad, as it allows players to communicate with fans but definitely takes away some of the mystique of proffesional sports.
Another dramatic change in how athletes are perceived is the introduction of text messaging as a communication medium. Text messages, phone calls, and internet conversations can now be saved for later use by either party quite easily. We may never have known about the Tiger Woods scandal if some of his ex-girlfriends hadn't saved the text conversations that they had had. The Brett Favre scandal never would have happened. I picked these two players specifically because before their respective scandals, both were regarded as legends in their respective sports, dominating the headlines for years with their sports achievements. However, after the mishaps that they have had, they've both become laughing stocks in the sports world and in society.
Some of the greatest players in sports history are seen as gods in today's day and age. Some of the players who immediately come to mind are players like Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Bobby Orr, and Gale Sayers. Each of these players dominated their respective sports, and no of them ever suffered a scandal like so many of our sports figures do today. This isn't to say that they never did anything wrong, it was just that nobody ever found out about anything that they may have done. I don't think that players such as Tiger Woods, Ben Roethlisburger, or Brett Favre can ever achieve this level of greatness. They're just too human.
Jared, you raise some interesting points in this post. I wonder if our almost creepy insight into the lives of professional athletes means that we will no longer know athletes like Ruth, Jordan, Orr, and Sayers. Unfortunately, our knowledge of their scandals probably taints our perceptions of them as athletes. I know I cringe when I think of Michael Vick winning the MVP award. However, I also know that this might not be fair. I do have one question for you. You say that Woods, Roethlisburger, and Farve will never achieve the “greatness” other greats have achieved. You say, “They’re just too human.” Is this different from Ruth, Jordan, Orr, and Sayers? Or, do we just know it now more than we used to?
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that Twitter and other media are changing the way we look at our sports heroes. This is especially true with the amount of questionable opinions and statements they post. These athletes post for the general pleasure of themselves, as well as their fans that follow them. But I think that the ability to keep tabs on all of these athletes is diminishing their admirability.
ReplyDeleteI think you could compare this effect to spending too much time with a friend. Your life is revolved around them, and eventually you need to just get away from them. You get tired of just knowing every single aspect in their life, and seeing them every day. Now if you only see them every once in a while, things change. You look forward to the next time you see them again because you know you're going to hear something new.
The more you hear about these athletes, the less we look at them as heroes. They become less of athletes, and more of a trend. And trends come and go. We think they’re kind of cool for a while, but then we completely forget about them. That Is what Twitter is doing to these people. But they don’t care. They care about being the subject of conversation right at that very moment. Even if they know that what they are posting will give them a bad reputation. All they want is publicity, but they don’t think about how they’re actions affect them in the long run.
As Jared said, players like Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Bobby Orr, and Gale Sayers are seen as gods today. That is because they didn’t have a method to expose themselves like today’s athletes do. The moment a player becomes the spotlight of attention, we always hear about what they said about another player, or about their coach, or about how they aren’t getting payed enough. Only the ones who mind their own business live on in our minds as heroes. That is why players like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, who stay quiet about their lives off the field (at least for the time being), will be remembered with the greats of sports history.