We tend to forget that athletes are in fact, human. We forget the fact that just because we put someone up on a pedestal, doesn’t truly mean that they are immortal or infallible. 

In time, when someone achieves some things that we subjectively deemed great based off of superior talent in a specific area, we idolize them to a point where if they did something wrong or changed our perception of reality of what they are/what they should do, based on our ideology of pro athletes we are quick to take a shocked stance. 

But we shouldn’t be.

The latest stories surrounding athletes and their mortality has got me thinking about how much we idolize athletes in varied sports and fail to realize their humanity based off preconceptions of a new ‘pro athlete standard’:

• Blake Griffin slipped up. He lost his temper and dropped a team employee. In result, he broke his hand and put himself on the shelf for 8-10 weeks and suspended for four games. 

• Peyton Manning, recent two time Super Bowl winner and 5x MVP, has recently had a sexual harassment case brought to light from his days at the University of Tennessee, 20 years ago. 

• Ronda Rousey, came onto the Ellen DeGeneres Show and revealed she thought about suicide following her loss to Holly Holm.

These athletes are held to a new ‘pro athlete standard’ in which their greatness overshadows their mortality and character issues in a sense to where we hold them to a higher standard and what we should aspire to be, and expect nothing less than perfection and greatness. They are our role models. Tangible Gods and heroes of lore. So when that standard is broken by showing a sense of morality or flaw, we do not know how to react because they have now fallen off that pedestal. Their “brand” could be tarnished and they could become ostracized just based off public opinion. 

However, if we take a stance of understanding athletes are human, the shock factor would not be as great when their morality is shown. Granted, the mythos of the ‘Superior Untarnshied Athlete’ would be lost, but it truly never existed. It’s just a ideology conjured for inspiration to go above and beyond the call of duty for a person we should aspire to be. It’s not an absolute that if you lose a mythos, you lose inspiration. These athletes’ athletic prowess should be our inspiration, so should some of their traits, but no one is perfect. No one should be put up on a pedestal, athletes are all fallible and mortal, just like us. We should hold each other and athletes to a higher standard, and with a high character, but in all, we’re human.

Photo courtesy of self.com