Our Imaginary Pedestals

Oscar Pistorius

    In American society, many people think very highly of their "heroes," especially those in sports. Sometimes we might forget that in reality, we know nothing about these people except for what we make them out to be in our imagination. Friday night at the Blackhawks game I found myself talking about Jonathan Toews (the captain of the team) as if I had known him my whole life, when of course that is not actually the case. Outside of hockey, Toews, at least from what the public sees, has a pretty clean record. On the other hand, there are many athletes that are, or at one point were, looked up to, who are not as great in the real world as they are in a sports game.
    As this NPR podcast states, "These have certainly been dispiriting times for those who admire athletes, who proclaim that sports build character." The word that stands out here is "dispiriting," meaning to cause someone to lose hope. When someone finds out something bad about their favorite athlete, they will at first be upset and down on hope, but it is likely that in no time they will have moved onto a new athlete to place on their pedestal. Recently, there have been several incidents that prove that sports may, in fact, do the opposite of "build character." The most extreme example would be Oscar Pistorius, who killed his girlfriend on February 14. Many looked up to Pistorius, a paraplegic olympian, for his courage and determination, but paid no attention to the fact that even before the olympics, he was accused of assault and spent a night in jail for it. Other athletes, including cyclist Lance Armstrong, have been proven to have used performance-enhancing drugs. To add to the list, as said in the NPR podcast, "Our glorious intercollegiate football champion, Alabama, has given us three student-athletes who were...allegedly mugging real student-students." The list goes on and on, but what does this mean for us sports-watchers? I can't help but think about all the young children who look up to people who may be good at playing a sports game, but are definitely not good role models outside of the sport. Why do we think so highly of people who excel as an athlete, but oftentimes not as people?