Author Topic: Today's athletes - can they measure up? (Read 570 times)

gofaster · « **on:** December 01, 2003, 10:24:21 AM »

In a word - No.

Let me know when Michael Irvin and Deon Sanders dedicate their lives to teaching deaf children to play football.

Dingbat · « **Reply #1 on:** December 01, 2003, 10:38:55 AM »

~~She's probably faster do to less drag. Men have a high drag coefficient~~

Mini D · « **Reply #2 on:** December 01, 2003, 10:49:07 AM »

Hmmm... you can point to people in the NFL that are just as dedicated to helping children. Look up a bio on Doug Flutie some day. Don't just pick the ****heals and condemn the whole sport... or all sports. The elite athletes that suffer personal tragedy seem to respond to it with the same dedication that made them such athletes in the first place.

to that woman for what she accomplished in her life and those she helped.

to you for trying to make some kind of "state of athletes" statement linking an article about her life and her death.

Sandman · « **Reply #3 on:** December 01, 2003, 11:09:29 AM »

I think that the impact of professional athletes as role models is overstated.

You can the ask the majority of successful athletes about their role models and most of them will either say it was their parents or their coaches that made the most profound effect upon their lives.

Certainly, there are some incredibly talented athletes with work ethics to match, but by and large this work ethic is no different than the one possessed by your own parents who very quietly with no fan fare and no endorsement contracts managed to put food in your mouth and clothes on your back.

gofaster · « **Reply #4 on:** December 01, 2003, 11:25:45 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Mini D
to you for trying to make some kind of "state of athletes" statement linking an article about her life and her death.

Flutie was motivated because his son suffered the same condition as his charity. Same goes for Dan Marino's work. Not to discount their charitable contributions, but would they have gotten as involved if a family member hadn't suffered from it?

Let's face it, she was an amazing woman, an amazing athlete, and an amazing human being. She took a fairly non-descript sport and turned it into name recognition and made a good living at it. When she was done she stayed active in the sport and helped others enjoy doing it.

32 NFL teams at 55 players per team.

I'd say there's probably 10 to 12 high-visibility players on each team. Why does it seem that only 1 or 2 on each team is involved in the United Way or some other charity?

To be fair, there are some guys that go the extra mile - Warrick Dunn's "Home For The Holidays" comes to mind (he helps low-income families buy their own home).

At least Boomer calls it out.

Quote

Esiason said Thursday that the Taylor interview was the "most disturbing, disgraceful thing I have ever heard" and opined that Taylor "should be in the hall of shame," not the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Sunday, Esiason said Taylor would have flunked today's NFL drug tests and added, "This is not the NFL that I played in."

That set off Sanders, who claimed he was "on the podium with two guys (Esiason and Marino) who are naive and don't understand. ... Don't tell me you don't know what's going on in the NFL," he barked.

Mini D · « **Reply #5 on:** December 01, 2003, 11:38:55 AM »

And she was deaf gofaster.

MiniD

gofaster · « **Reply #6 on:** December 01, 2003, 11:54:24 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Mini D
And she was deaf gofaster.

MiniD

Correction - she went deaf, aggravated by her swimming. I think her knowledge of sign and her notoriety as a swimmer made her uniquely qualified to teach deaf kids to swim.

Lou Ferigno once quipped that, had he not lost his hearing, he wouldn't have been as motivated to succeed as he was. He wanted to be better than the other "average" kids. He speaks at universities and schools for the hearing impaired.

Then again, I can't think of any deaf NFL players.

There are several schools for the deaf that all have football programs. The one in Alabama won the national championship games in 2001 and 2002.

Maybe Dexter Manley and LT could do charity work with crack babies.

Mini D · « **Reply #7 on:** December 01, 2003, 12:13:36 PM »

Gofaster, you champion someone who helped deaf kids learn to swim after she "went" deaf. And you dismiss someone else who's helping children because something happened to them.

Really dude... quit trying to hate the modern athlete so much. It's making you look silly.

MiniD

Mini D · « **Reply #8 on:** December 01, 2003, 12:18:21 PM »

BTW... I'm not trying to take away her "extraordinary" status. I'm just not a big fan of you trying to say it shold be the norm. It was remarkable then and it is remarkable now. To use it as a slam against modern athletes ignores the fact that some athletes in the past have been every bit as much of **** as some modern day athletes and that there are truly extroardanary athletes from all eras.

MiniD

Pongo · « **Reply #9 on:** December 01, 2003, 12:37:44 PM »

Game set match to Mini on this one.

gofaster · « **Reply #10 on:** December 01, 2003, 01:18:23 PM »

Nah, what I'm saying is, look, here's a lady who took an obscure sport, did something remarkable with it, made a living at it, helped charity with it, and was a great human being.

Now, look at today's athletes who get fame because of the sport they're in. How many of those athletes can say that they can measure up to her humanity? You pointed out Flutie, I pointed out Marino and Dunn, and Boomer made his comments on tv. Heck, I even threw in Lou Ferrigno as an example.

What I'm saying is, is there any modern athlete who has accomplished what she did? I can only name one: Lance Armstrong (who, in addition to his cancer charity work, is active in promoting a local race run by a charity in Texas encouraging teens to get into triathlons instead of Nintendo).

Let's face it, more guys are making more money in football, baseball, basketball, and hockey than there are guys making money at swimming, cycling, running, and triathlon. To garner fame in a non-mainstream sport is remarkable. To dedicate your time to charity work is icing on the cake.

Mini D · « **Reply #11 on:** December 01, 2003, 01:27:42 PM »

I know what you're saying gofaster... and it's a load of ****.

You're taking one example and applying it to everyone in the form of a scathing indictment of modern day athletes. You have no idea what the "obscure" athletes are doing... nor really any idea what the famous ones are doing. You simply chose to believe that one encompasses all that is right while the others embody all that is wrong. There's some at the extremes from all eras... but even more that fit into neither extreme.

There's no need to issue indictments on all athlete's behavior. They are every bit the individuals that everyone else is.

MiniD

gofaster · « **Reply #12 on:** December 01, 2003, 01:43:16 PM »

When did I say all football players are bad?

When did I say all swimmers are good?

All I said was, let me know when Deion Sanders and Michael Irvin become charitable individuals. We see their faces every weekend.

For every Romo, there's a Van Dyken .

gofaster · « **Reply #13 on:** December 01, 2003, 01:46:50 PM »

Oh, as for not knowing what obscure athletes are doing, I think you used circular logic. If we knew what they were doing, they wouldn't be obscure.

Mini D · « **Reply #14 on:** December 01, 2003, 01:59:03 PM »

It's who you use to define the sport gofaster. You compare that lady to Irving and Sanders. Why? You compare the best from one era to the worst from another. Why?

Don't tell me you aren't stereotyping in an attempt to indict all modern athletes. It's painfully obvious to everyone but you.

MiniD