Out of bounds; a division of sports and fashion

Out of bounds; a division of sports and fashion

There is nothing more repulsing than the pairing of sports and fashion. Burberry and baseball, Fendi and football, Hermes and hockey, combining these pairs seem taboo. But with the professional league’s recent fashionization, the pop culture phenomenon leaves the sports world with an unfavorable result. The focus is taken away from the end zones, outfield, and neutral zone, allowing athletes to get distracted from the game too. Athletes, whose title is interchangeable with celebrity, have a hard time keeping their eye on the ball.

When players aim for fame, the limelight shines on the individual’s personal life and casts a shadow over the initial reason for the athlete’s success; his ability to play baseball, football or hockey. Self-importance struts around in suits and studded earrings while the humble uniform brings an unpretentious air to game day is left on the locker room floor. Sorry honest competition; swag is the new sport.

Major League Baseball has come a long way in developing the sport, for the better, into what it is today. But claiming that today’s players have done the same, and are all in it for the sake of the game’s team effort and honest competition is a tough call to make. At the start there was Ty Cobb, the first 20^th century super star, today, it is Alex Rodriguez who walks in his shoes. But those shoes, unlike Cobb’s, are likely to be the talk of the town, featured on fashion blogs across the web. These same blogs, like designandfashion.com feature A-Rod’s prospective wife checking out wedding dresses a day before an American League Championship Series game. These writers are seen deliberating whether Kate Hudson is the cause of the third baseman’s success in the playoffs.

Cobb was once quoted saying, “Baseball is a red-blooded sport for red-blooded men. It's no pink tea, and mollycoddles had better stay out. It's a struggle for supremacy, a survival of the fittest.” The raw talent possessed by the two is enough to get them recognized; it is a wonder however, why the later of the two athletes has allowed the media to take away from his Yankee teammates to showcase his new Hollywoodified image. 

Those California hills seem a long way away from Cincinnati but with Chad Ochocinco’s passion for fashion and attention, the team’s “Who Dey” motto won’t be in effect for long. Everyone will know of the franchise and the self-proclaimed “athletainer” (athlete and entertainer).  The wide receiver is catching passes as well as the nation’s attention, in the most negative sense of the word. The masses are not concerned with how many times he and quarterback Carson Palmer connected last Sunday. Instead, we are blitzed by stories of how the former Chad Johnson’s name change and the controversy that followed. In order to match his name and number, and going along with his athletainer mentality, he changed his name to a loose Spanish interpretation; reason being: fun. When asked in an interview for the team’s website, he countered with, “Have I ever had a reason for why I do what I do? I'm having fun." Fun at the expense of Palmer and head coach, Marvin Lewis, who have grown to detest these antics. The chemistry is disrupted. The teamwork, the throw, that was caught for a first down, only get the ball rolling for the personal celebratory skits performed. Cincinnati and the NFL need Ochocinco to touch down and get his head out of the clouds. His job is to play football; fun and fashion aside.

On that fashion side is where Sean Avery resides, when he is not on the ice. Being credited as the most fashionable player in the NHL is an honorable recognition, possessing a positive connotation. But leave it to the New York Rangers’ left winger to turn this accreditation around. Avery attempts to maintain his rough and tough fighter image on the ice while interning at Vogue on the side. Sometimes, the boundaries blur and hockey fans are forced to witness their sport lose an unfair fight. In an interview with Newsweek, Avery detailed his on-ice antics…

“It is his job…to annoy his opponents, to get under their skin-anything to gain an edge. Like the time he painted his fingernails black. "It was an experiment to see what a guy would do when he saw a fist coming at him and the nails are painted," he says. Or the time he turned his back on a game against New Jersey so he could wave his arms to block goalie Martin Brodeur's view and glare at him like a jackal. "I still remember the look on his face," says Avery. "I think at that point he thought I was officially out of my f------ing mind." The NHL promptly outlawed that kind of diversionary tactic in what is now called "the Avery Rule." "I only got to do it once," he says, "but it was a good once."”

Nail painting and unsportsmanlike diversions are detrimental to hockey’s future. The ability to fight as well as shield the goaltender is a cherished gift and key factor in many games. Avery’s actions are mocking the league that is paying him and bringing negative attention to the sport. Fashion only gets a man so far when he is so destructive to his own career.

The careers of Alex Rodriguez, Chad Ochocinco, and Sean Avery are unique, they can cause a scene and still name their price. Their selfishness is greater than their talent in the eyes of their league’s owners. Not sure this makes sense. Rethink.  But as their heads and checkbooks get bigger, the need for sports agents grows smaller. Their celebrity stature is above the work of the guys like Jerry Maguire. It is now time to show the A-list agents the money. Groups like the Creative Artists Agency (CAA), are embracing the athletes who are adding to their already stacked résumé of singers, song writers, and actors. The USA Today, in an article titled, ‘Top athletes follow celebs in picking A-list agents,’ reports that the players are doing so to get ahead in marketing themselves.

“Traditional sports agents can provide many of the same services — contract negotiation, marketing, financial management. And they probably would charge similar percentages of the money generated by the deals they make. But few, if any, can say they can line up an endorsement deal or a guest spot on a popular TV show just by walking across the hall.”

Sports fans are still being entertained, but not by the honest competition and traditional style of play. They are interested in the happenings of athlete’s lives, sports related or not. Alex Rodriguez, Chad Ochocinco, and Sean Avery are the athletes of today, the ones that will be remembered. But what makes them great…their style of clothes or their style of play? Their increase in fame brings the demise of the sports world that sports agents and fans once knew and loved. Picture professional coaches in Coach gear…unfortunately it doesn’t seem so farfetched.