What Happened to the Bad Guys in Sports?

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Remember how entertaining it was to watch Dennis Rodman?  From the hairstyles to the antics to the nut shot on the cameraman; Dennis always gave you a reason to watch. He was definitely a peculiar fellow, but fans still gravitated towards him.  He was a bad guy.  He knew it, we knew it, and nobody wanted it any other way.

Things have changed now.  We no longer have bad guys.  Instead we have players with character issues and guys who should be privileged to be in the position they're in.  If a player acts out, they're labeled with the ranks of Adam "Pacman" Jones or Terrell Owens.  The problem is we have classified the two together, when they're not even near the same type of player.  Now if you act out, do anything that is deemed a detriment to society, or have any character flaw that doesn't fit with the norm then you're labeled bad, and that's never a good thing.

Back in the 70s, 80s, and even the early 90s we had teams like the Philadelphia Flyers and the Detroit Pistons who were considered goons or bad boys of their sport.  People knew what they were and loved them for it.  Being bad was an attitude, not a problem for the league.  Players who were considered bad guys had chips on their shoulder.  They showed it every day that they played and wanted to prove to the world that nothing was ever going to be their downfall.

I guess politically correctness has changed in the past couple decades.  No one can do anything anymore without being chastised or reprimanded for their behavior or something they say.  Everyone has to take the same path now to get where they want to go.  There's no individualism, and if you try to have any, you are put in your place immediately.

All sports have addressed these issues.  The NBA has enforced a dress code for all players, the NFL won't let you celebrate anymore, baseball won't even let players use steroids now.  It's unbelievable how far these leagues have gone.  No sport will let anyone talk negatively about the organization.  There are fines and suspensions for anything of that nature.  How did we get to this place?

It's the expansion of the Internet and media.  Now when something is said that’s regarded as derogatory it's blown out of proportion by the media, it's all over the Internet, and fans grab onto it and won't let it go it until it's run its course a million times over.  It's a shame that people aren't able to speak their minds anymore or express themselves, but we only have ourselves to blame for these extreme types of reactions.

I don't care about political correctness.  I'm going to say what I feel and hope you feel what I say.  What people don't understand is being political correct is a never ending process that is never going to becorrected.  The new accepting term today will be the disdainful term tomorrow.  You can't use the term midget anymore, you have to say dwarf or vertically challenged.  The word retard changed to mentally handicapped, and now it's intellectually disabled.  I guess the longer the word is the tougher it is to use it in a negative manner.  What's going to be the new term when people think calling someone intellectually disabled is demeaning though?

The point is that our society has just spiraled into a whole new realm of what's right and wrong.  We can't just be realistic and understand that no matter what word we use or what phrase we say, if it's used to be hurtful then that's it.  If I call someone a midget in a hurtful manner and I call someone vertically challenged in a hurtful manner then what's the difference?  Same context, different word.  We need to be able to look at the whole picture and realize there's no definitive right or wrong words, just like there are no definitive good or bad guys.

Sports organizations can try to control the perception of players all they want, but all they are doing is setting themselves up to fail.  By trying to create this utopian society of athletes we are just creating a situation where any problem is now considered terrible, when some problems should be considered minute and others severe.

Athletes have personalities; let them show it.  Why try to make someone into something they aren't?  We can keep pretending that these athletes are different people because they are dressed in suits or not celebrating, but all we are really doing is just calling them by a different word, one that just isn't as derogatory at the moment. We created this problem and there's really no way to fix it, except by understanding that our current fix is no fix at all.

Hopefully someday we can return to a society or at least a sports world where someone can show emotion and a $10,000 fine doesn't come with it. Maybe we can see players having fun and celebrating again when they score, even if it hurts the itty bitty feelings of the other team and their fans. Maybe we can finally let people just be themselves and not try to make everyone a good person.

Because even when you're a good person, sometimes it's fun to root for the bad guy