Regardless of popular belief, ESPN and other major news networks are not always on point, after watching days of networks getting the story wrong time and time again, I felt the need to set a few things straight and bring light on the situation from a South Carolina student's perspective.
After getting angry at myself for not knowing I was standing next to Phelps on Halloween night, I made sure I would get to see him again. I found out the next day that a special guest speaker would be talking to one of our Sports & Entertainment classes that I had already taken, and I put two and two together.
The next day I snuck into the class so I could get an official meet and greet with a man who just walked away from Beijing with a record eight gold medals. As I sat there anxiously as time passed, there was still no guest speaker.
The teacher then announced that our speaker was leaving a video game shoot in New York early on a private jet to make it in time to speak to our class. Confusion then filled the entire class as many had projected it would be Phelps coming but why in the world would he leave Columbia go back up north then come back for just a class?
Well the guy you have seen on TV all week being ridiculed for taking a minute out of his crazy life to get away from everything did just that. That's the first thing that spoke to me about his character without him saying a word.
He motivated all of us by first telling us how he got to where he is at followed by reaping the benefits which for him included SNL, the Grammies, and having friends like Ray Lewis, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James.
To have the most famous athlete of my generation be as humble as he was really caught me off guard; the answers to our questions were as down to earth as you can get, it felt like we were talking to one of our everyday peers.
I will never forget the look on his face when I came up to him after class to shake his hand; I could tell he was stunned that all I wanted to do was meet him. And that was the final straw for me to realize that yes, the greatest Olympian of all time is just like anyone of us.
My mission seemed to be complete but after recent pictures of Phelps brought horrific scrutiny to his name, I now can see how famous people do get the bad wrap by not only the media but also "haters" out there looking for financial gain.
Today I wanted to jump through the television screen as I watched Rome is Burning; one of Jim's ignorant guests debated with another guest that Phelps' situation was worse then A-Rod's because, "he should've known better."
He stated that Phelps should've known that there were going to be cameras and cellphones at a frat party. First of all it wasn't a frat party, and second there was a strict guest list in which everyone on that list were not allowed to bring cameras or take any photos of such kind with their cellphones.
Everyone invited was a close friend of the home owner in which he felt more then confident that his request and requirements would be met.
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