Athletes These Days!
Recently, the sports world has been flooded with a seemingly endless array of negative stories: Terrell Owens is a selfish childish egomaniac! Ron Artest is a thug! The NBA is a bunch of over-paid spoiled brats! The NFL is full of murderers and sex-boat parties! Baseball is filled with greedy steroid abusers! And after each story is pounded over everyone’s head until they’re convinced that every athlete is a Dr. Phil episode, a new soap opera surfaces that consumes the daily headlines.
When Charles Barkley declared that “athletes aren’t role models” over a decade ago, no one realized just how good fans had it. The prevailing black marks on sports during the 80s and 90s were related to Michael Jordan and Pete Rose’s rumored gambling – what a sinful and legal indulgence that was – and the occasional Michael Ray Richardson drug related story.
Then at some point in time, perhaps after the media got a sniff of the circus surrounding the OJ trial, any negative story about an athlete became the flavor of the month; there were headlines and follow ups and insider stories and “outside the lines” stories and legal specialists and essentially the end of all that is decent in society. Football had the Ray Lewis “murder” trial, Rae Carruth’s case, Randy Moss bumping a traffic cop, Jamal Lewis’ cocaine trafficking, and this year that callow “TO” melodrama in Philadelphia, and some lewd sexual activity on Lake Minnetonka. A one-hit-wonder in college, Maurice Clarett, made headlines by committing an armed robbery in a Columbus alley. Maurice Clarett isn’t even in football.
From what we’ve heard about the NBA, many deduce that the league is a bunch of 18 year-old inner city criminals. The Portland Trailblazers have a rap sheet longer than anything James Frey could ever conjure up. Let’s not even mention Eagle, Colorado.
Then there’s baseball, which has apparently become the country’s largest black market in performance enhancing drugs. Bonds, Giambi, Sheffield, Palmeiro, Sosa, McGwire and pretty much anyone else who hit a home run in the last 15 years has been tainted as a cheater and a drug-peddler.
Hockey took a year off to improve its image, but before the lockout there were multiple on-ice incidents in which players were suddenly being charged with assault after committing egregious penalties.
What is happening to athletes these days?
The answer might surprise a few.
Unbeknownst to even the most obsessive sports follower, this current generation of athletes has been overwhelming philanthropic for years. We just never hear about it.
Kevin Garnett, one of those immature, spoiled basketball stars who skipped college, pledged to build 24 homes over the next two years with Oprah’s “Angel network” for Katrina victims. That’s a $1.2 million donation with no strings attached. Garnett also launched “Four Excellence in Leadership” in early 2002 to connect minority high school and college students with business leaders. He also purchased more than 15 suites at the Target Center for local cancer patients and tickets for under-privileged children. He developed a “dream” vacation for terminal children, sending them and their families on otherwise unaffordable trips to places like Disneyland.
This wasn’t just one isolated incident though. After scouring through the internet for hours I stumbled upon instance after instance of charity work by countless athletes. Most of them were located in the bowels of newspaper and website archives. The NBA’s charity page - http://www.nba.com/nba_cares/ - is overflowing with humanitarian endeavors. All you have to do to find it is scroll down to the very bottom of the homepage – the link is next to the “WNBA Offseason Happenings,” and some piece about Tony Parker’s fashion sense.
Jerome Bettis has been the talk of the Super Bowl, returning home to perhaps win a championship in the final game of his hall-of-fame career. But in all the features on “the Bus,” there has been nary a mention of the amazing charity work he’s done in Detroit over the years. In 1996, he started “The Bus Stops Here” foundation to assist underprivileged youth in the inner city, and now he’s teamed up with the American Lung Association in a campaign to promote awareness. Clearly, the gubernatorial wager on the game is a more important story.
After Katrina, Peyton Manning and his brother traveled to Louisiana to assist with supplying food and goods to survivors. When reviewing the story, I stumbled upon the “Peyback foundation,” a private non-profit corporation, established in 1999 by Manning to promote the success of disadvantaged youth. It has donated more than $1 million since its inception.
Shaquille O’Neal also responded to Katrina, but the story was reduced to a blurb here or there. O’Neal and his wife organized a fleet of trucks and personally drove relief up the coast from Miami to Louisiana. Shaq also works with youth and other charitable causes, and has donated over $1 million to the Boys and Girls club of America. But hey, he can’t shoot free throws.
Guard-turned-broadcaster Kenny Smith quickly organized an off-season charity game for Katrina. In a matter of weeks, Garnett, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and even Ron Artest rallied to Texas to assists hurricane victims and promote the game. It raised millions.
And there are innumerable others.
Lance Armstrong’s “Livestrong” bracelets have raised over $58 million for cancer.
Tiger Woods started the “Tiger Woods foundation,” focusing on projects for children, and his annual fundraiser “Tiger jam” has raised over $8 million. He is opening a 35,000 square foot educational facility for youths, “The Tiger Woods Learning Center,” in 2006.
Derek Jeter started “Turn 2,” to prevent substance abuse, which has awarded more than $5 million to anti-drug educational programs.
Rasheed Wallace – yes the Rasheed Wallace – has multiple foundations to help youth in the community and was awarded the NBA community assists award.
Dikembe Mutombo donated $15 million to build a hospital in the Congo.
The list goes on: Mario Lemieux (fighting cancer), Vince Carter (foundation for those in need), Alonzo Mourning (assists youth), and the unofficial leader of the pack, Andre Agassi.
Agassi’s foundation spent $11 million in 2003 alone helping disadvantaged children in Las Vegas. He opened his own school in 2001, the $36 million “Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas,” with 420 kids from K-12. It was the top-rated school in the county in 2004. His annual concert has raised over $59 million in the last decade.
And there are many more (this link provides a few: http://youth.fdncenter.org/youth_celebrity.html)...
So when the next prima donna wide receiver tears apart a team, or one out of the nearly two thousand NFL players is arrested for a misdemeanor, or someone whines about a contract extension, don't be so quick to think of this generation of sports superstars as selfish and criminal.
I know what I’ll be thinking:
Athletes these days.
When Charles Barkley declared that “athletes aren’t role models” over a decade ago, no one realized just how good fans had it. The prevailing black marks on sports during the 80s and 90s were related to Michael Jordan and Pete Rose’s rumored gambling – what a sinful and legal indulgence that was – and the occasional Michael Ray Richardson drug related story.
Then at some point in time, perhaps after the media got a sniff of the circus surrounding the OJ trial, any negative story about an athlete became the flavor of the month; there were headlines and follow ups and insider stories and “outside the lines” stories and legal specialists and essentially the end of all that is decent in society. Football had the Ray Lewis “murder” trial, Rae Carruth’s case, Randy Moss bumping a traffic cop, Jamal Lewis’ cocaine trafficking, and this year that callow “TO” melodrama in Philadelphia, and some lewd sexual activity on Lake Minnetonka. A one-hit-wonder in college, Maurice Clarett, made headlines by committing an armed robbery in a Columbus alley. Maurice Clarett isn’t even in football.
From what we’ve heard about the NBA, many deduce that the league is a bunch of 18 year-old inner city criminals. The Portland Trailblazers have a rap sheet longer than anything James Frey could ever conjure up. Let’s not even mention Eagle, Colorado.
Then there’s baseball, which has apparently become the country’s largest black market in performance enhancing drugs. Bonds, Giambi, Sheffield, Palmeiro, Sosa, McGwire and pretty much anyone else who hit a home run in the last 15 years has been tainted as a cheater and a drug-peddler.
Hockey took a year off to improve its image, but before the lockout there were multiple on-ice incidents in which players were suddenly being charged with assault after committing egregious penalties.
What is happening to athletes these days?
The answer might surprise a few.
Unbeknownst to even the most obsessive sports follower, this current generation of athletes has been overwhelming philanthropic for years. We just never hear about it.
Kevin Garnett, one of those immature, spoiled basketball stars who skipped college, pledged to build 24 homes over the next two years with Oprah’s “Angel network” for Katrina victims. That’s a $1.2 million donation with no strings attached. Garnett also launched “Four Excellence in Leadership” in early 2002 to connect minority high school and college students with business leaders. He also purchased more than 15 suites at the Target Center for local cancer patients and tickets for under-privileged children. He developed a “dream” vacation for terminal children, sending them and their families on otherwise unaffordable trips to places like Disneyland.
This wasn’t just one isolated incident though. After scouring through the internet for hours I stumbled upon instance after instance of charity work by countless athletes. Most of them were located in the bowels of newspaper and website archives. The NBA’s charity page - http://www.nba.com/nba_cares/ - is overflowing with humanitarian endeavors. All you have to do to find it is scroll down to the very bottom of the homepage – the link is next to the “WNBA Offseason Happenings,” and some piece about Tony Parker’s fashion sense.
Jerome Bettis has been the talk of the Super Bowl, returning home to perhaps win a championship in the final game of his hall-of-fame career. But in all the features on “the Bus,” there has been nary a mention of the amazing charity work he’s done in Detroit over the years. In 1996, he started “The Bus Stops Here” foundation to assist underprivileged youth in the inner city, and now he’s teamed up with the American Lung Association in a campaign to promote awareness. Clearly, the gubernatorial wager on the game is a more important story.
After Katrina, Peyton Manning and his brother traveled to Louisiana to assist with supplying food and goods to survivors. When reviewing the story, I stumbled upon the “Peyback foundation,” a private non-profit corporation, established in 1999 by Manning to promote the success of disadvantaged youth. It has donated more than $1 million since its inception.
Shaquille O’Neal also responded to Katrina, but the story was reduced to a blurb here or there. O’Neal and his wife organized a fleet of trucks and personally drove relief up the coast from Miami to Louisiana. Shaq also works with youth and other charitable causes, and has donated over $1 million to the Boys and Girls club of America. But hey, he can’t shoot free throws.
Guard-turned-broadcaster Kenny Smith quickly organized an off-season charity game for Katrina. In a matter of weeks, Garnett, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and even Ron Artest rallied to Texas to assists hurricane victims and promote the game. It raised millions.
And there are innumerable others.
Lance Armstrong’s “Livestrong” bracelets have raised over $58 million for cancer.
Tiger Woods started the “Tiger Woods foundation,” focusing on projects for children, and his annual fundraiser “Tiger jam” has raised over $8 million. He is opening a 35,000 square foot educational facility for youths, “The Tiger Woods Learning Center,” in 2006.
Derek Jeter started “Turn 2,” to prevent substance abuse, which has awarded more than $5 million to anti-drug educational programs.
Rasheed Wallace – yes the Rasheed Wallace – has multiple foundations to help youth in the community and was awarded the NBA community assists award.
Dikembe Mutombo donated $15 million to build a hospital in the Congo.
The list goes on: Mario Lemieux (fighting cancer), Vince Carter (foundation for those in need), Alonzo Mourning (assists youth), and the unofficial leader of the pack, Andre Agassi.
Agassi’s foundation spent $11 million in 2003 alone helping disadvantaged children in Las Vegas. He opened his own school in 2001, the $36 million “Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas,” with 420 kids from K-12. It was the top-rated school in the county in 2004. His annual concert has raised over $59 million in the last decade.
And there are many more (this link provides a few: http://youth.fdncenter.org/youth_celebrity.html)...
So when the next prima donna wide receiver tears apart a team, or one out of the nearly two thousand NFL players is arrested for a misdemeanor, or someone whines about a contract extension, don't be so quick to think of this generation of sports superstars as selfish and criminal.
I know what I’ll be thinking:
Athletes these days.
posted by Ben Taylor | 2:55 PM
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