In a world where lives are dull and we need excitement or an escape from reality we turn to many things out there. It could be watching television or movies or playing video games, where we watch the fake lives of other people to ease our own problems with our lives. The place where most people go to hide from life’s problems is the world of sports. We could be playing or watching sports where it consumes your life because it’s the best thing you can escape to. We are also at the same time blind to some of the bad things that occur in sports. We love our teams so much or our favorite athletes that we don’t see something wrong when we are praising or celebrating them.
If you’re an avid boxing fan you may only know the big names like Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather, so you only have so many options to root for. You may be a huge fan of Mayweather, despite his countless arrests for battery, domestic violence, one year suspended jail sentence, and most recent 90 days in jail. People still adore him and are paying good money to see him.
In the NFL, it is all about rooting for your team for the most part. So you love the whole team and if you’re a fan of Greg Hardy formerly of the Panthers, or Ray McDonald, formerly of the 49ers, you say “eh he served his suspension and did his time let him back on the field our team needs him.”
Personally, when Adrian Peterson my favorite running back in the NFL, my second favorite player overall, was indicted of grand jury on charges of reckless or negligent injury to a child he let me down a bit.
Others shared the same opinion, “It’s not ok for them to be celebrated, it ruins sports, said, Jon Halpert. “These are people we are supposed to be looking up to be heroes.”
Even though Peterson was charged and served his suspension, I still was a fan of his hoping for his return the next season. I also did not take his poster of my wall. I know he did something wrong but I still forgave him. It’s the moral line of rooting for your favorite teams or athletes even though they personally might not be a good person, but we as kids looked up to many people including, Jose Canseco and Roger Clemens. It hurt me that Clemens cheated, and that I stopped considering him as a favorite player from my childhood.
But there are other people who think they get what they deserve in the media and blogs. “They have been slandered and criticized heavily for their actions, it’s just they have been allowed to continue to get paid millions of dollars after their crimes, said Chris Jefferson. “I feel these people are scum with talent. But if they are repentant for their actions they should be allowed to do what they love.” In the end, we need to draw a line as to whether we should root for athletes with a bad personal life, or realize that we should remember that not everyone is perfect. We should root for their sports accomplishments and admire them for only those accomplishments, and not their whole life story. We do live in a country which is all about second chances, and we should at least give them one. When we are kids we look up to them as examples, but they always don’t live up to those expectations, and we need to accept that and help them with any personal issues they may have.