Final Commentary: Rise and Fall of Athletes

The rise and fall of the modern-day athlete has been the stories of legend, from the highest of highs to the cataclysmic fall from grace. There are many people who have tried to explain how this happens. Some say it has to do with black culture, gangster culture, the fall of morals in American society, the list goes on. The truth is it totally depends on where the athlete came from.

One rarely hears about an athlete who came from a good background, without poverty or violence, without some of the legendary hardships that make unbelievable stories, do something stupid that would get them in trouble with the law or get them thrown in jail. It does happen, but those are the stories that usually do not catch as much attention because the press was not waiting on those to happen.

The stories that capture the most attention are the ones where athletes who came from harsh backgrounds and have become successful wind up having a fall from grace where they get involved in a bad situation and break the law. These stories are many, Michael Vick, Allen Iverson, Lawrence Taylor, etc. You get the point.

The reasons why these athletes get in these situations is not totally their fault. The honest truth is, they just do not know how to deal with success. They grew up without success, and now that they have it, they do not know what to do with it.

For example, when an athlete comes from a background where lived in poverty, they obviously do not know what to do with money. After they become successful, they have all this money and they just want to celebrate and surround themselves with friends and live it up. The problem is everyone wants to jump on the gravy train, these athletes have everyone telling them what to do with their money, what to buy, where to go party, who to spend it on, etc. They are in a position to make everyone happy and that is what they want to do now that they are finally in a position to do so.

There is a code among professional athletes, do not laugh when you see an athlete go down because you never know when that might be you. The press needs to adhere by the same code. Until the press realizes that athletes that come from nothing and all of the sudden have everything will probably wind up falling from grace, usually from the fault of others trying to screw them over, the press will never understand.

This is not intended to blast the press and call everyone bad journalists. This is intended for everyone to broaden their horizons and realize that until you walk a mile in some one's shoes, you will never know where they came from. Therefore, you probably should not be so harsh with the words that go in the paper, on the air, or on the Web.