From heroes to villains: Why we cannot always admire today’s athletes

Lance Armstrong

Little John sat on his couch in disarray. Having turned the television on, John was shocked to see what every news channel was broadcasting. He adores the New England Patriots, having just torn the tag off his no. 81 jersey to wear it. A few seconds later, the jersey anew was tossed away by John. The eight-year-old goes to an elementary school in an area close to North Attleboro. This zip code also appears to be the home of his hero, New England Patriots tight end, Aaron Hernandez. In such a dispiriting time for John and the Patriots, the question remains to be answered – can our sporting heroes always be admired?

There isn’t skepticism as to whether athletes can be admired. They can be – a lot of them. But to reiterate, the inquest is if they can be always admired. While I wish to positively answer that myself, a recent turnaround of events in the sporting world could inequitably quash my opinion. The good ones always exist in a pile. But the bad ones are those who change a record into one with an asterisk next to it.

Like little John Karson, our friend Felix too watches sports. Felix is fifteen years of age and is an aspiring sprinter. His upbringing in South Africa was one of hardship but like his idol, he motivates himself to see the brightness out of the dark. But what can Felix tell himself today? The athlete he draws the most inspiration from was arrested on grounds of first-degree murder.

There is sufficient proof that the culprit was Felix’s inspiration – Oscar Pistorius. The shooting case involving the South African paralympian has coveted enough attention in the media to tarnish all of his achievements. While the disputes between the accused and the prosecution can last awhile, are there answers as to what Felix can be told each day he puts on his spikes?

Like thousand others living invisibly in South Africa’s poverty, Felix’s way out was through sports. He still might succeed, leap strides ahead in life but will always know this – “athletes cannot always be admired”.

Lance Armstrong is the sport of cycling’s most popular but infamous partaker. He fought cancer with a lot of vigor and made a triumphant return to the sport to win 7 Tour De Frances. When many of us give up far too easily, Armstrong taught us to have a different mindset – one where even through the direst of adversities, an ignition of hope exists to prevail.

But when he came out to accept that he cheated to win every one of the Tours, his legacy was forever tarnished with hypocrisy. Many cancer patients looked up to him as an inspiration and to ‘live strong’. Yet Armstrong’s decision to flimflam his way through success could only dissuade them.

There have been a plethora of cases that have surfaced in recent years to discolor the image of modern day sportsmen. While there are those whose legacies cannot be begrimed, there can be the few whose stature of veneration collapses into one of disbarment. Instead of reveling in a lifestyle aspired by many, these corrupts stoop down to one of perennial embarrassment.

Today’s world sees millions living in poverty and barely scraping with finances. There are thousands whose incomes lie well below the six figures. But for all these, the most common entity of pleasure or entertainment is sports. Not having enough to burn your pots at home makes you have countless headaches. But watching your favorite athlete surmount the insurmountable or your favorite team achieve the unachievable brings smiles to even those faces languishing in desperation.

Withal, in a society where we feel our youth population is growing far too quickly and it is near impossible to mask the verity from them, what are we mature adults going to tell them about athletes faltering? In a day where the feeling to don the jersey of a team or country is comparatively unparalleled, do we become responsible enough to label this a materialistic aspect of human living?

Although it can be argued that many of us look up to those outside of sports, there are those whose felicities lie only in the aforementioned domain. And they aren’t just the infantile children, like little John or a young teenager like Felix. Adults, whose age can no longer be considered as tender, also endure in the satisfaction drawn from sports.

Oscar Pistorius

Like a wise sage once said, sports has become as much as a part and parcel of our lives as there is anything today. Perhaps it is the only realm that foregoes the borders created by race, age, gender and any of those of anomalies. But such actions of imprudence cause us to remain wary of our everyday heroes.

All of us make mistakes at this age but as we grew up, we aspired to be different than that. Aaron Hernandez, Lance Armstrong and Oscar Pistorius weren’t always focused on killing someone or doping as they molded their talents in sports. It isn’t deniable that they too, like several others, went through hardships before success came along. But when it did, they misused the power of the pedestal sports has given them.

It is an age where there lies a possibility that many of us are easily convinced by the athletes that we watch on television or read about on the internet. But the certain breeds of them thwart us into pondering if it is even worth emulating any of them.

We can continue to admire the good pedigree of athletes that service humanity and bring happiness to our lives. But the sagas of Aaron Hernandez, Oscar Pistorius and Lance Armstrong have taught us that it is unforeseeable to think our heroes too can become villains. And we, being responsible sports fanatics that we always will be, need to come to terms with that. This isn’t a movie but just mere reality.

Disclaimer: The characters of John Karson and Felix are fictional and bear no resemblance to anyone living or dead.