Friday, October 15, 2010

Yesterday's Stars Did A Lot Worse

I just finished reading an article on Foxsports.com talking about today's athletes and their misgivings and how they didn't hold a candle to Mickey Mantle (Today's bad boys couldn't touch Mantle). After giving it some thought, I say the same thing.

Yesterday's stars or heroes didn't have to worry about cell phones,computers,paparazzi, TMZ or anything that today's professional or even amateur athletes worry about. I've read about or heard stories about "The Mick", Babe Ruth, or any Oakland Raider from the 70s or 80s, how they lived hard, partied hard, and played hard. Thing is, hardly a soul ever knew about their wrongdoings. You think this Brett Favre mess is something. Roger Goodell would have to bring in replacements for some of those wild Raiders characters. Sexting? That was child's play to them. As much as Ruth and Mantle were revered, they were hard partying womanizers and heavy drinkers. They also were buddies with anyone covering the team, so whatever they did disappeared and didn't come out until they were long retired or dead. Today it's harder to get away with anything with all the technology, internet, and cell phones. In reality, they have nothing on the stars of yesteryear.

Not that I condone any of their behavior, but there are lots of "heroes" that got away with a lot worse than anything that Brett, Tiger, or Ben Roethlisberger could ever do. I don't really care to know what anyone does with their time away from their sport. They are human, they just decide to play by a different set of rules from the average man. I know, a lot of us say that if we did that we'd lose our job. We don't live in  their world and they don't live in ours, so please stop using that one. I kind of liked it when I didn't have to hear about what Reggie Jackson or Walter Payton did in their spare time.