I happen to be born in the Year of the Pig, but we’re not here to talk about me. If there was a Sports Chinese Zodiac, the year of 2009 would be The Year of the Fall From Grace.
The image of TYOTFFG would not be an animal…well, it does involve a Tiger, but not an animal.
Tiger Woods is certainly not alone in having a rough 2009. The placemat would also have to have images of Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez. We should probably put Rick Pitino on there too. It would also show the late Steve McNair, unfortunately.
It’s not just that the year has taken its toll on some professional athletes or coaches; these men are legendary in their respective sports.
If we were living 50 years from now, these are still men we would talk about in sports history as some of the best that have played or coached the game (McNair is arguable, but he’s certainly legendary in Tennessee and in his home state of Mississippi).
Anyone who ever coaches men’s basketball at University of Louisville will be measured in comparison to Pitino. People around the game of baseball say Rodriguez could eventually go down as the best player to put on a baseball uniform. Experts will tell you there are few in history that have the ability to hit a baseball like Ramirez can. It’s not a matter of if Woods will pass the great Jack Nicklus in major tournament titles, but when.
Sports fans want to believe these athletes can be great at their sport and great people that make the right choices at all time. Well, that’s not possible for any of us, so we shouldn't expect these guys to either.
After covering Major League Baseball for a year, I got a tiny, tiny glimpse into the life of a pro athlete. I realized that pro athletes behave they way they do because basically, these guys haven’t been told no since they were in elementary school. Most of these guys have known from an early age they were gifted athletically. They were most likely always in the cool crowd. They have few limits financially. Girls have probably been throwing themselves at these guys for most of their lives. It leads you to live in a warped reality.
It’s a reality that can cause you to think you are untouchable. As we have seen from the TYOTFFG, no one is untouchable. Woods’ nightmare seems to grow exponentially by the day. Pitino has to face recruits’ parents and try to explain away his poor decisions. A-Rod and Ramirez’s careers will always have a cloud over them: were they that good, or were they only good because they had help? McNair’s choices, or at least one very bad choice, left him dead.
Luckily for these guys (except for McNair, who tragically won’t get a second chance) winning seems to heal all wounds for the sports fans. A-Rod is a prime example of that. In a year where he admitted to using performance enhancing drugs in 2003 (by having his cousin shoot him in the butt to do so, which if that’s true, is another awful choice altogether). A strong showing in the playoffs en route to a World Series title, and that story seems to drifted away.
Hopefully, these guys learn from their mistakes. And maybe, we’ll look back on 2010 as the Year of Redemption.
0 comments:
Post a Comment