We have a tendency to spend too much time showing people at their worst and not enough time showing them at their best. Sure, athletes sometimes make it easy for us, by either shooting themselves, lying to Congress or cheating on their wife repeatedly. But regardless of what goes on behind the scenes in their lives, it is up to the media to choose what to focus on and the nation to choose how to digest such information.
This past week, ex?Baltimore Ravens tight end Todd Heap made one hell of a classy move. In an era of ugly contract disputes and messy breakups between teams and players, Heap took the high road despite being cut from the team he'd played on for 10 years. Heap was still performing - he had his fifth?best statistical season in 2010 - and was still durable - having missed only three games in the past three seasons - but the Ravens decided to go young in 2011.
I'm sure you can already see the storylines forming in your head. Heap could have pulled a "Tiki Barber," securing a pulpit on national television and lambasting his old team for it. He could have pulled a "Brett Favre," destroying his legacy and breaking his fans' hearts as he bounced from team to team, eventually falling in the lap of his home team's bitterest rivals.
But Heap, who now plays for the Arizona Cardinals, did none of that. Instead, he bought a half?page ad in last Friday's Baltimore Sun and thanked the owner, general manager, every player and every fan. He sent his thoughts to Art Modell, the team's former owner, on the passing of his wife. He called the fans tremendous. He explained, "While it was not my decision to leave Baltimore, I accept that change is sometimes necessary." No tirade, no public embarrassment, no Twitter wars. Who does this guy think he is?
In a world of recession and trouble, it is comforting to hear the tale of a humble millionaire athlete. Heap, who by all accounts is adored by the Baltimore community, understands the opportunities that he has been given and is gracious to those who were there for him.
Unfortunately, very few people get to hear about his story. Had he criticized his old team in a public forum, he might have made the front page of ESPN.com. Instead, you have to dig through the NFL section and find the AFC North specific blog to read anything about it. A quick news search on Google finds exactly two articles on the subject across the entire Internet, one of which is the aforementioned ESPN piece. The only reason I have even heard the story is that a friend from Baltimore posted the image on his Facebook wall.
Heap undoubtedly deserves much praise for his actions. But what he did should be the rule, not the exception. Yet even when athletes do act as good role models, their stories are often overlooked, so we don't get to appreciate those who do the right thing or show those people off to the kids that idolize them. ESPN is too busy being TMZ to be PBS.
We are quick to blame athletes for consistently making bad decisions. Yet athletes represent a large population, and in any population there will be those that make the wrong choices. Unfortunately, the media circus has reached a point where it looks exclusively for those wrong?doers and crucifies them until the end of time as hundreds of good stories quietly float by. Perhaps it is not the athletes that are creating such a bad image, but the media itself that is molding it.
If that's the case, then I hope that getting this story out can help to break the frame.
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