Public Image.

After finishing the documentary on Wednesday, I had similar feelings to those Sam expressed in the blog post directly below this one. It really bothered me that he couldn't quite make up his mind on how politics and sports should interact. I mean, if you're going to make a documentary... you can't be on the fence.

However, despite this confusion, it still sparked some thought in me. I really latched on to his concept of Americans liking to think of things, and people, as simple. I see this as an extremely true statement; ask anyone who's ever met someone famous and they'll either say "Yeah, he was such a nice guy, really seemed genuine," or "Oh that guy's such a jerk. He doesn't even care about his fans." We want to think that the people we idolize are either heroes or villains; there's no room for an average Joe. After all, they're making millions more than us- so we want them to be extraordinary for better or for worse.

To go along with this, I believe this is why everyone raises such a stink when a public figure gets themselves in a pickle. All of a sudden, they don't fit the mold of a simple hero or villain- they've created their own villainous persona and started attacking. Even though you and I blow up at our friends or mouth off to a teacher almost daily, we're allowed. Those who are in a public position are expected to just... be. We're fascinated with them... but we expect them to be simple. Then any small action outside our assigned norm is reason to write the presses. My question is this: When the heck did they ask us? When we fall out of line, it's our friends and family who have a right to get angry with us. While we may respect or look up to an athlete or any celebrity, they don't know us from Adam. So I guess I know that no matter how much I don't understand the fan uproar over celebrity mishaps, I'm definitely not going to change anything. It goes back to the parasocial relationship- we get mad because we thought we knew them like a friend.

So what I'm trying to get to is this: Zirin gets exactly what he wants- both athletes who will brings politics in and those who will leave it out. The ones who bring it in will face scrutiny and praise, but it's their prerogative because after all, they're just another person with opinions just like you and me. Unfortunately, all I have is this blog and 30something readers while they have 5 million television sets. And to those who chose to keep their opinion private, I think Zirin was way too quick to judge. I can respect someone who would rather express their opinion just to their loved ones and colleagues, like you and I do. Being famous doesn't mean the world is your stage.