Sports Heroes

"Sports Heroes." You all have heard the term, or like many of us, you have used the term.

There is no such thing as a "sports hero" with one or two exceptions (Pat Tillman).

Sports figures are simply entertainers, nothing more, nothing less. They are no different from an actor or singer that entertains us.

I am always the first to point out when a "sports hero" falls, but today I read something that made me stop and think of how a sports figure could at some time actually be a "sports hero."

Let me digress for a moment.

Sports has become a huge business because we all want to be entertained and escape reality, if only for two or three hours. Team owners have become Pimps, players have become high priced Whores and fans have become Johns who don't care as long as they have a "sports hero."

Owners do not care what their players have done. In fact, they support them no matter what. Example: Kobe Bryant flying in and out of Colorado on the Lakers private jet to attend his rape trial. Another example: Owners like the Dolphins organization that support Ricky Williams who was suspended by the NFL for the entire 2006 season following a fourth positive drug test. Their only concern was that he could go play in Canada while he sits out a year in the NFL, but the Dolphins get him back in a year.

With that digression, let me come forward to a story that got me thinking.


Gooden Would Rather Be Shot Than Jailed
Ex-MLB Star Is Serving One Year, One Day Sentence

Dwight Gooden hopes his time in jail will help end his two-decade battle with drugs and alcohol, saying he'd "rather get shot than come back here," the New York Post reported Wednesday.

The former Cy Young Award winner is serving a year and a day in a Florida prison for violating his probation by using cocaine.

Gooden was once one of those "sports heroes" people have. When he was on top, he was the man. Gooden was the 1984 Rookie of the Year, and he was the 1985 NL Cy Young Award winner while with the Mets.

Then enter drugs - he was hooked up and flying high!

"I look back at '86 and I remember when that season was over, that's when I first got started with cocaine," he said. "Now here we are 20 years later, the team is celebrating that year and I'm in prison because of cocaine."

All too often we see this type of story from professional athletes, and maybe it's time that changes are made.

We, the true sports fans, have to be the ones to make the changes because the owners, unions, and players sure as hell won't. It is time for the fans to start making our voices heard.

All sports, with no exceptions, have to adopt a stringent drug policy. Suspension of one year after four drug violations as in the case of Williams is not a drug policy.

Next what sports needs to look at is a program similar to that of actors. Actors pay into a fund that takes care of down and out actors. It's time the players' unions and the owners institute such a program.

Every sport should have a fund that requires all players pay in, let's say, 10% of their annual salary. Those funds could be used to rehab people like Gooden. I am not stupid enough to believe everyone could be helped, as there are those that nothing can help. But it is a start.

As it stands now the odds are Gooden will get out of jail and no one will be there to help him stay clean. There will be those though who will offer him a line of coke for old time's sake so they will own him.

If such a program as I am suggesting existed, then maybe the graduates who turn their lives around will pay back and work with the youth and the players just entering the big time, and maybe, just maybe, keep those kids and players away from the evil side of sports.

Then, and only then, will we have a true "Sports Hero"!!!