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When sports figures perform poorly, on or off the field, how does it affect you?

Eric Ringham October 15, 2010, 5:00 AM Oct 15, 2010

The Twins, the Vikings and the Gophers have all disappointed their fans lately, and revelations about Brett Favre’s personal life have tarnished his image. Today’s Question:

About the blogger

Eric Ringham

eringham@mpr.org

jason

doesnt affect me at all. sports are pointless. what a waste of time, money, and resources that could be used for something productive.

Wade

We still have Pro-Sports here in MN? Didn’t we sell them off? I couldn’t care less what an overpaid goon does on or off the field.

The only good that comes from sports is it keeps people in their homes on their couches and out of the waters and woods I frequent.

Steve the Cynic

Headline: Famed sports star Hugh Jego does something embarassing, possibly criminal, that reveals he’s a spoiled brat. {Yawn!} So what else is new?

JasonZ

It reaffirms my belief that we, the taxpayers, should not be asked to help pay for their excessive and lavish stadiums which they (especially the Vikings) do not deserve.

midas

I don’t understand the question. Why would it affect me?

Matt A

Roll eyes, call them stupid, then continue ignoring them.

Jim G

I am not a fan of any pro sport. I stopped being a believer after the NFL strike in the early 1980’s. I go for bicycle rides during games and have the trail to myself. The way I see it, the fans get all the pain while the “game” gets all the monetary gain.

james

Professional athletes = Over paid, drug using, wife beating crybabies

∑

DTOM

DMox

Gee…dunno.

When I perform badly how does it affect them?

Who cares?

Glenn

It makes for funny conversation- but nothing else.

Jenny N

While I don’t watch professional sports regularly, the sense of group that comes with being a fan of a particular sport or team is a way to break down our larger communities and find commonality with strangers. This creates a sense of ownership with the teams and players. When a team plays poorly, the fan communitiy commiserates together. When they excel, the fans celebrate together. At the least, you can always revive a dull conversation with the line “How ’bout them ?”

Amy

I suppose it gives me another reason (as if I needed one) to not watch sports. The whole culture surrounding sports, besides the fact that I find watching them extremely boring and a waste of time, is why I do not like commercial sporting.

jim

You’re asking the wrong audience this question. In my experience, people who live and die for the Vikings, Twins, etc., don’t listen to MPR and likely aren’t going to be visiting this website. Personally, just as I don’t follow Hollywood gossip, I don’t pay much attention to sports. It’s irrelevant to my life.

steve

for me if an athlete performs poorly that is a b ad image for society because they are role models to be looked up upon. its okay on the field to perform badly because as an athlete/worker we all have bad patches but off field it is really bad! its really important to perform well because kids look-up to sports figures.

greg d’Roseville

on the field – when they perform poorly – and surrounding businesses see dropping customer counts – then the premise of their existence ( creating business) and the presumed tax benefits to the community – in exchange for the massive cost of infrastrcture to support them – is seriously undermined. off the field – when their self-centered antics confirm , for adolescents with underdeveloped brains, that boorish idotic moronic behavior is tolerated in the uber-class of professional athletes – means that teachers, coaches and umpires in K-12 and community sport programs have a serious issue with the culture of bone-head athlete. Professional sports should have to put up a national corrective actions fund to cover dealing with all of the problems they generate.

Jim Shapiro

Although I intellectually understand that it’s all bread and circus, it still make me sad when the Twins or Vikings lose. I grew up cheering for them, and having left the state many years ago, they continue to be symbolic connections for me – both to my childhood and to my beloved Minnesota.

Kevin VC

Not at all.

Only when it interrupts my shows or takes over time from actual news on a news program….

Catering celebrity of a sports player only encourages them to do stupid stuff. Personally I point out they are paid WAY too much, there is no return on investment.

Its like a microcosm of Wallstreet.

We don’t pay enough the threaten to move on. Even though there is a limit number of places they could go.

But really they should be under the same rules as anyone else. Some have gotten big heads and think they are above the law (like Wallstreet) and do stuff because of that or a stunt to grab attention that they are important (when in reality they are not).

I would be happy in a world were sports players were NOT paid. That the sports they do is because the love the game, not the money.

Then we would see HONEST performance.

Albert

I am disheartened because of the implications for so many of our youth who look up to these individuals. I believe that while there has been some very small changes made in league policies of all major sports to show the need for proper conduct, the truth is these individuals are coming into a spotlight for which there is very little preparation and they are not prepared. When you give a 19 year old millions of dollars and tell him how amazing he is all the time, you skew his perception of reality to a point where he is almost predetermined to make some poor choces.

Kyle D.

I hear about it an awful lot from organizations that apparently can’t find any real news to report, and that’s about it.

Sports figures are known for their ability in sports games, not in behavior contests.

It makes me feel self-righteous and superior to the sports fans who I secretly fear are judging me for my lack of enthusiasm for sports.

Whenever I can point to the thing others love and say that it’s dumb or corrupt or predictable, I will do it because it allows me to discount the real appeal of the thing to avoid trying to learn about why people enjoy it.

In short, when athletes behave badly, it’s a chance for me to paint lots of *other* people with a broad brush…and justify my own myopia.

Go Timberwolves.

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