Athlete's And The Lives They Live

As a child, I didn't watch sports that often, but I knew who Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky were because they were everywhere.  It used to annoy the hell out of me seeing them, but as I got older and loved sports, I couldn't wait to see an athlete on TV.  Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky were basically retired when I got older, so I focused on athlete's who were popular at the time: Shaq, Kobe, Barry Bonds, Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong.  The list of athlete's seemed to run a mile long, but unfortunately all was not what it seemed.  For some athlete's, they had their own issues off the court, which seemed to get in the way of their athletic career's.  For Kobe and Tiger, it was infidelity, while Barry Bonds and Lance Armstrong cheated to get an edge.  It was a sad reality being a fan of some of these people, but now it's even sadder because an athlete's personal life overtakes everything now.

I could point fingers at Kobe, Tiger, Barry Bonds, or Lance Armstrong for making sports this way, but it's already been done.  In some ways, I see how it's necessary to talk about an athlete's personal life since it's so interesting, but they're just normal people like we are, who deserve their own privacy.  Yes, I know they make millions of dollars, so it seems okay, but that still doesn't make it right.  It's hard enough being scrutinized on the field, but now they're getting scrutinized for living.  It just isn't right, especially since if they make mistakes, things are magnified.  Yes, there are good and bad athlete's, but we don't talk about good and bad people, or good and bad politicians all the time, so why athlete's? 

For me, this all goes back to the Manti Te'o girlfriend "scandal".  I've never seen such a waste of time in my life from media and sports outlets like ESPN.  Yes, Manti Te'o got pranked, and made a gullible mistake, but we don't have to talk about it for weeks on end.  Finding an answer would be enough, but to ruin his life or to make his stock in the NFL Draft go down because of it seems extreme.  He didn't want to talk about it, everyone else did.  And because of that, now I can't go a day without hearing about Manti Te'o, Lance Armstrong, or someone else.  I'm sick of it!  Yes, they all made mistakes and we can talk about it, but we eventually need to move on.  Everything isn't as interesting as it seems, and if you love/hate someone, why pay attention to their personal lives?  You don't do it for your friends and family all the time, so why athlete's?  What makes them special?  I used to ask myself that same question, but now I don't anymore.  I love sports and the athlete's who play it, but I draw a line between paying attention to their play and what they do on their free time, because there's just more important s**t to do in the world.