I’ll put right up front that I am not a sports fan – particularly pro sports. I’ve always derisively referred to athletes – “jocks” – as “steroid mutants.” I know a lot of men like sports, so I generally keep quiet in order to stay out of arguments.
But, once in a while a case comes along that puts my hype and hypocrisy aversion into overload. Tiger Woods only got me to the yellow zone, but the pictures of Mark McGwire simpering and sobbing as he Oprahfies himself and seeks sympathy for lengths he went to in his pursuit of fame and money just made me want to puke.
There is much to admire about a man pushing himself toward excellence and achievement. A good challenge will stir up a man’s blood and spirit like nothing else. Setting a record, being “the best” at anything, can create a sense of pride that nothing else can.
Unless he has to “cheat” in order to do it.
And then no matter how great the public praise, the accomplishment really means nothing to the person who did it. Oh, how the high and mighty do fall. In the past month we have witnessed the public spectacle of not just one, but two, larger than life, record breaking, superstars be reduced to pathetic groveling.
Personally, I believe there is much wrong with the famous Vince Lombardi-ism “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” In McGwire’s case, “winning” seems to have been so important that he was willing to do anything in order to do so. And now, whatever he did accomplish is being discounted due to the fact that he didn’t actually accomplish it on his own, but with pharmaceutical help. ”Winning” for him isn’t “everything”, or “the only thing”, or now even anything.
In both McGwire’s and Woods’s cases, we see men who sell out their integrity in exchange for an image – and a bit of wealth. But those images were both fragile, and based on lies. And, when those lies were finally exposed, both of them crumbled into pathetic heaps of apologetic Jello.
In a quavering voice, McGwire apologized and said he used steroids and human growth hormone on and off for a decade, starting before the 1990 season and including the year he broke Roger Maris’ single-season home run record in 1998.
I could have some respect for him today if he had stood up, either then or now, and say “Yeah, I juiced. So what? Most of the guys who are any good do it. If you want to be at the top of the game, and everyone else around you is giving themselves an edge, then you have to give yourself that same edge.”
I think there are a whole lot of important issues in these cases for men. First, is the trade-off between honor and competition. Is there any pride to be had in winning without honor? Is being “the best” by cheating the best really something that can make a man hold his head high? And, the “fans” who make these guys what they are… do they admire ruthlessness and cunning more than honest achievement?
For some reason, the strains of Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days” are running through my head. McGwire and Woods had theirs, but they are over. And everything they worked to achieve has been eclipsed now by their feet of clay being exposed. Public adoration is fickle. In 20 years I can easily imagine a couple of golf fans talking about great golfers – “Palmer, Nicklaus, and that guy who was boinking all those bimbos.” Or a couple of baseball fans talking about home run kings – “Ruth and Maris… they did it without ‘roids.”
Truly, what does it profit a man if he gains the entire world, or just fame and money, but loses his soul? How many of us would go for 10 years as a sports hero knowing that at the end of it we would have to make humiliating public spectacles of ourselves?
These guys are only a couple of examples, but they are the reason why fame and wealth do not interest me all that much. I would not trade all of both of their money for the ability to look anyone in the eye, including myself in the mirror, and have no fear of a lie I have been living being exposed.
