Everyone Suffers When Athletes Behave Badly

Reflecting on the Steve McNair tragedy that dampened the holiday weekend for many folks, I just can't help thinking, this is what happens when professional athletes behave badly. 

While no one is deserving of the fate that McNair suffered, no matter what it is they are doing in their personal life, the result is that people end up remembering them for one ugly incident that may not reflect who they truly are, or were. 

Steve McNair was one of the classiest, toughest players that I've ever seen on a football field.  He never complained and never quit, no matter the odds or how much pain he was in.  He would just buckle his chinstrap, haul his beaten body to the field & seemingly will his team to victory.  I suspect many of his charitable acts were intentionally done quietly, because he didn't need to have people know what a good man he was. 

Yet I wonder, is there someone out there who was just a child in 1999 when McNair took Tennessee to their only Super Bowl, or in 2003 when he was co-MVP with Peyton Manning, who will now remember McNair differently due to the circumstances of his death?  I know it has happened to me. 

I was 14-years-old when my late father and I first got season tickets to the Buffalo Bills in 1973.  I was blessed to watch history before my eyes that first year I got to watch live NFL games, as O.J. Simpson blazed a trail to 2,000 yards in a season the likes of which had never been seen before.  I recall a 90 degree cut at full speed that left defenders grasping at nothing and my 14-year-old mouth hanging wide open. 

But whenever I think of him now, my view is jaded by the fact that this man most likely got away with killing two innocent people and is now in prison on an armed robbery conviction.  I ask myself, can Michael Vick ever really fully rehabilitate his image, after being convicted for facilitating dogfighting?  Or will some child who watched Vick weave his magic in Atlanta remember him forevermore as someone who made dogs fight to the death and perhaps think of his own dog, leaving him with nothing but contempt for his former hero? 

Many people suffer when professional athletes behave badly.  Families suffer, which is the most important thing to remember.  Sometimes the franchise suffers.  Sometimes fans suffer.  Innocent people suffer too.  But what suffers in the long run may be the reputation of the player himself, and although that is sad, we have to remember:  He did it to himself by being in a situation he chose to put himself in. 

That may be the saddest part of all.