Before I get into this, I want to state that first of all I don't smoke pot and I probably never will. Not that I think there is anything wrong with it, I just don't care to smoke anything. Anyway, here...we...go...A few days ago, the pictures that shook a nation and took away a countries national innocence for the 50 bajillionth time were unleashed upon the interwebs. Michael Phelps took a bong hit and was photographed! Oh no, think of the children! WHY WON'T ANYONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!?!?
Ok, ok, maybe that is a little excessive, maybe you could call that an overreaction, but most of all, maybe you could call that the reaction that has taken place to these photos. Now, it was stupid on Phelps' part, granted it was also stupid of him to get a DUI underage, but what was the main stupid offense here? Was it that he actually smoked pot, or was it that he got photographed doing it?
When I worked in the residence halls at the university I attended, we were very much under the same scrutiny. The same way that Phelps can lose his sponsorships for being photographed doing something that our society would call unsavory or detrimental to his role model status and having it leaked to the public, I could have lost my job for doing the same thing and having it put up on Facebook, MySpace, or anywhere else. I completely feel for him on this one, but have to wonder, how stupid can the guy be?
When he got his DUI while he was underage, I had to wonder, if you're a world renowned athlete and want to get drunk, why would you not have someone to drive for you? Do you not have enough friends that you can say something to the effect of, "Hey, I want to get drunk, will you drive for me?" and be able to get a ride?
At that point, he had won a few gold medals and had some endorsement money, he could have probably even paid someone to be his driver. But that was a little over 4 years ago, now Phelps is in trouble for smoking pot. Once again, this is something that is easily avoidable as an issue. If you want to get high, do it before you go to the party. It's not that difficult to do at all, especially with who you are. I'm willing to bet that you could mooch some pot off of someone already there and smoke it out of the public view or have one of your people get some pot for you for free.
Instead of taking the easy precautions, Phelps now is facing a three month ban from USA Swimming, the governing body of competitive swimming in the United States, and he has lost his Kellogg Co. endorsement when his current deal expires. I'm sure it isn't that big of a hit to his wallet, given all of the endorsements that he has, but it's still money and the suspension still interferes with his training for the world championships in Rome in July. Just a lot of trouble that could have been prevented.
But in the grand scheme of things, is it really that big of a deal? I say, simply, that it is not. For as long as I can remember, professional athletes have been idolized by our society and been viewed role models. I cross-referenced it with my parents childhoods, and they said the same thing was going on for them as well. But how is it that an athlete like Babe Ruth can be an alcoholic and a womanizer who routinely exercised the use of hookers and still not be demonized in the public eye? Then it hit me like a wild Mike MacDougal fastball, it is all the media.
We currently live in the ESPN age, where they will report anything and everything they can to get a story, regardless of how much truth is involved. Recent memory brings to mind the Kordell Stewart being gay story, the Mike Shanahan to the Chiefs story, everything reported ever by Ed Werder and many more were all stories reported by ESPN off of a rumor. Because of this, and their itchy trigger-finger when it comes to beating a story into the ground, when ESPN gets something they do not let it go at all. Factor that in with their partnership with ABC, and you've got a mess just waiting to happen.
Back in the day, they didn't talk about the players activities outside of the field, or court, or diamond. There was discretion shown as far as what the mainstream media would report on about athletes. These days, you don't see it at all anymore and that is why we have this current situation with Phelps. A decade ago, you wouldn't have seen this with an athlete because our society has changed, permanently, thanks to the internet. Now, I can just go to Deadspin to see what other bonehead moves the athletes I watch on a regular basis are doing. If it gets enough momentum, ESPN might mention it and turn it into World War 3, it really is crazy how that works. Or, if I want to go see what athlete ESPN feels like attempting to bury, Adam Jones I am looking in your direction, I can turn it there and see what story they are either blowing out of proportion or making up completely. I could even get the picture and sell it to a paper in London thanks to our technology. The times really have changed, really, they have.
The point I'm trying to make is that in the grand scheme of things, all that the Michael Phelps story really is is a story about a dumb kid who made a mistake. So he smoked a little pot and got photographed, he didn't fail a drug test, he could have been doing something far far worse, and I'm willing to bet that everyone reporting on this story and scrutinizing him has probably smoked pot at one point or another in their life as well. Just give the kid a break already and let him get back to winning a ridiculous amount of gold medals, maybe if you smoke pot, you can too.
