Storyline: What do you expect from top sports stars? For me it’s athletic excellence, public presence, and social activism.
Don’t ask me why. I don’t know why. All I know is this: I conceived this column while watching TV, watching a major sports star trying to explain…working hard to describe…struggling to express…his thoughts and feelings at the podium following a sporting event.
At first I thought: “It must be the situation. There’s a lot of pressure, emotion.” Then, the more he talked, the more I concluded: “It’s the guy.” Thud! I mean T H U D.
The gap between my expectations and his performance was, well, big. Make that “huge.” It was troubling, too. It bothered me. Even though I had seen hundreds of post-event interviews—this one, above others—stopped me in dead in my tracks. Why?
Courtesy: collegesportphdblog.com
Earlier in the day I had witnessed another athlete go through the same experience. The outcome was very different. The second athlete expressed himself thoughtfully and communicated effectively. It wasn’t an act. It was an outcome of aptitude and skill, not unlike what the star exhibits on the field.
What explains the difference? It’s certainly not background. Both athletes play the same sport. They’re both college graduates. They both grew up in the same, general geographic area. And they both have the same, general family and socio-economic background (White, Middle Class).
The experience made me think about a basic question: What do I expect from my sports stars? I expect excellence on the field, of course. That’s a given. But I expect more. More of what, though?
I hadn’t thought about that question before, at least not as deeply as I did this week. What did I learn? I learned that my answer will be highly personal and probably idiosyncratic: it’s mine, not necessarily anybody else’s. That means it’s not a matter of getting to THE answer because there isn’t one. There are answers. Here’s mine.
In addition to being high-level athletes I want my star athletes to able have a solid public presence. That includes being able to respond well to interviews, especially when the press asks probing questions.
Jim Brown of the Cleveland Browns (Photo courtesy, sportige.com)
Let’s give this trait a name: managing public responsibilities. LeBron James does that well. So, too, did many athletes of yesteryear. Jim Brown, Jackie Robinson, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar come to mind. And that category includes coaches, too.
I don’t have patience for coaches who don’t speak in complete sentences and whose “logic” (if you can call it that) has me shaking my head. I can take quirky, folks like Yogi Berra, Casey Stengel, and Sparky Anderson. But I have trouble with coaches that sound … well … bad.
A few years ago I had to endure presentations made by a group of coaches talking about leadership philosophy. Although the first speaker sounded like a military general at war, at least I could make sense of what he was saying. The second speaker, who tried very hard, sounded like a high school student giving a speech on a topic that was way over his head. And the third? Disparate strands of this-and-that came out, one after the other, not adding up to much of anything.
How sad, I thought. I remember being inspired by coaches like Vince Lombardi, Knute Rockne, and Bud Wilkinson. Each knew how to speak and, more so, to communicate.
What’s more, many of these publicly capable players and coaches would talk a lot about the history of their game, about important people, critical events, and other experiences associated with the past. One of the things that struck me the other day is when the sports star told the press that he didn’t know much about the history of his game. That’s odd, I thought: here’s a guy making history who isn’t familiar with history.
Courtesy: JackieRobinson.ymca.org
The other thing I like to see in my sports stars (and let’s give it a name, too) is social activism. I don’t want my sports starts to just excel on the field. I want them to stand for something off it, just like Jackie Robinson did as a baseball star. I have great respect for players like that. They care about people, circumstances, and conditions, and they aren’t afraid to speak up and act out.
I like to write about those stars—athletes like football’s Jim Brown and boxing’s Ruben “Hurricane” Carter. And I post articles about engaged athletes on social media. A good example of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a former athlete who’s writes Op Ed’s for national publications.
It pains me when players at the top of a game—players like Tiger Woods (philandering) and Phil Mickelson (gambling)—get involved in self-absorbed activities. I prefer it when top stars—consider Arthur Ashe and Billy Jean King—get engaged socially and politically. And by “politically” I don’t mean in the elective sense. I don’t get excited when sports stars support particular candidates, even when they support candidates I prefer. But I do get excited when they speak out about issues and, then, get engaged in change efforts. Jim Brown, for example, founded an organization that’s dedicated to helping young black kids succeed in life.
Perhaps, in the end, what we expect from sports starts may depend on whether we see sports as a self-contained enterprise (about competition and entertainment) or something more. For me it’s something more. The increasing commercialization of sports (the money involved and the implications associated with commercialization) makes it that way for me.
Who’s at the top of my list? It’s Jackie Robinson: great athlete, proficient communicator, and committed social activist.
