To this point, I have not been doing a bang up job, admittedly, of keeping up with this NFL season. There have been three weeks fully played, and I really only reviewed one of them fully, and another review was just of the two games involving the Giants and the Jets. I will try to get better.
However, I ran into this NFL-related article, and thought it would be worth sharing. It is about the conduct of many NFL players, particularly (but certainly not exclusively) the high-profile ones. Because there seems to be a certain level of exemption that many sports stars seem to feel that they have from the consequences of their actions. Perhaps they begin to believe that they truly are as great and exceptional as people encourage them to believe they are.
In this particular article, quarterback Brett Favre is singled out as one of the prime examples of somebody who as admired for his athletic abilities on the football field during his playing career, but who's conduct off the field frankly leaves a lot of be desired.
Remember, particularly back in the nineties, Brett Favre was regarded as a hero, as a "gunslinger" style quarterback who epitomized what football was, and was supposed to be. John Madden in particular really seemed to like him, but he was very, very popular. Everyone seemed to heap nothing but praise at him. He had that mischievous, "little boy" smile. He was a warrior, probably could have played linebacker, and many of the other cliches that the announcers and experts and pundits all agreed made him special. Everyone admired how tough he was, how he played through pain, and how his presence automatically seemed to make whatever team he played for a contender.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am not criticizing his play. Granted, he made some questionable throws at times, most memorably the interception against the Saints in the NFC Championship Game following the 2009 season, when his team, the Minnesota Vikings, were in position for a realistic field goal attempt to win it with just seconds left. I still feel that the Vikings robbed themselves of a real chance to be in the Super Bowl, and possibly, to win it, as a result of that. But that's just part of the game, and part of what made Favre...well, Favre. He made a decision and went for it. Sometimes, it worked out, sometimes it didn't. When it worked out, he was glorified. When it didn't, he was vilified. Sometimes, I have felt that he robbed the Vikings of a chance to be in the Super Bowl, but then I remember that without him, the Vikings probably would not have made it anywhere near that NFC Championship Game to begin with.
So I will not question anything that he did, or did not do, on the field of play. His career statistics match up better than almost anyone else in league history, and he gave his teams a real chance to be successful. He did this with how he performed on the field.
Off the field, however, he seemed like....well, frankly, a real prick. There was the harassment of the New York Jets cheerleader during that one season when he came to play for Gang Green. There was his transparent sense of entitlement when the Packers did not bend over backwards to accommodate Favre after he flirted with retirement, and then decided to keep playing. There was the bullshit with him being friends with Donald Trump, playing golf and shooting the shit with a traitor who tried to overthrow the American government, and democracy itself.
Now, Favre is in legal trouble for illegally funneling money to himself, basically, using the millions of dollars in funds from taxpayers in Mississippi that was supposed to help poor people to benefit himself. Favre's welfare fraud is just further proof - as if any more proof were needed - that there is nothing nearly as impressive in how this man conducts himself off the football field as there was with how he performed on the football field. If he once had a stellar legacy - and she sure seemed to for a long while there - that is now long gone, buried by one proven instance of horrible conduct after another.
He is just one of many examples of spoiled rotten athletes who's conduct away from the spotlights of public attention focused on their athletic abilities proved to be anything worth admiring. Yet, many of these athletes are absolutely beloved during their playing careers and, in some cases, even after it has been proven that their conduct away from their sport is, in fact, horrible, if not criminal. Think of Ben Roethlisberger. How sickening was it to watch all of those people publicly heap praise on him as his football career came to an end, even when it was known that he conducted himself in a manner with condemning away from the football field. Michael Vick was another example, although he actually did serve prison time for his trespasses. You have to wonder what the reason was for why one was given a prison sentence, and the other got away with bad conduct, twice. Many people would cite the most obvious seeming reason. And while I suspect that there is indeed something to that, it is a point that I will not get into right now, because this particular blog entry is not about that. This is about mindless hero worship of people who, in fact, sure seem far from being actual heroes. And the problem for many of these athletes is that they are indeed encouraged to believe that they are above the law, that their star power grants them certain privileges, such as getting away with very bad, indeed criminal, behavior.
So yeah, be careful who you mindlessly heap praise on and/or hold up as role models. Or as Brian Murphy, the author of the article (see the link below) that got me on this topic in the first place suggests, be careful who you worship. These days, that seems like sound advice generally, and not just regarding athletes, either. In our celebrity obsessed culture, we seem to never go long before headlines dominate news cycles about some celebrity or another - again, not always sports-related - conduct themselves in a pathetic, if not even a criminal, manner.
Brian Murphy: Favre, Peterson are reminder to beware who you worship "Beware who you worship," writes Brian Murphy. BRIAN MURPHYSEP 16, 2022 7:15 AM EDT
https://www.si.com/fannation/bringmethesports/vikings/brian-murphy-favre-peterson-are-reminder-to-beware-who-you-worship
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