It sucks when your heroes fail you! Or maybe I should say it's tough when you are old enough to realize that your idols are human. Maybe it’s your dad whose infallibility invariably fades as you grow. Or it's figuring out that the tooth fairy is really your mom armed with a roll of ones (not at my house). It happens to us all and when that understanding sinks in it can throw a kid for a loop that quickly becomes a valuable life lesson.
Growing up, my heroes were athletes. Since we did not have a television in my
house my sports idols came to me on WFAN the New York radio home of the “The
Mets, Jets, Knicks and Rangers.” And
through the occasional newspaper and even rarer sports magazine that came my
way. As a result my heroes were guys like
Patrick Ewing and Dennis Byrd, a Jets player who was paralyzed by a hit on his
own teammate. The reason I am a Patriots
fan today, even though I call New York home, is because my young impressionable self
saw an article from Sports Illustrated about Drew Bledsoe being drafted by the
Pats and I fell hopelessly in love.
I can distinctly
remember the day one of my heroes failed me for the first time. The year was 1994 and the Knicks were playing
Houston in the NBA finals. Both teams
battled hard and the series was tied at 3 games apiece heading in to the
deciding game seven. In that game my
hero Knicks guard John Starks shot 2-18 from the floor, including missing all
11 threes he attempted in a narrow Rockets win. Had Starks made three of four more shots that
night he would probably still be on my Mount Rushmore of sports gods. Hell, he once dunked on Michael Jordan and
Scottie Pippen at the same time; dude was amazing.
As adults we still have sports idols, it’s just that we are
not as blindly devoted as kids can be.
If we are smart we pick guys or gals to root for that we think won’t
let us down. And if we see cracks in
their façade we bail quickly before we our hearts are dashed on the rocks. Everyone long ago quit on guys like Ryan
Leaf, A-Rod, and Lance Armstrong. Many
of us were all in on Tiger Woods, Barry Bonds and/or Aaron Hernandez before
they turned into sports pariahs’. Why do
you think we gravitate to Tim Tebow?
Because Timmy has a goodness and a safeness about him that’s easy to
root for even if he can’t throw his way out of a paper bag. God forbid he turns back into a human and gets
a DUI. A lot of adults as well as kids
are going to have their hearts broken.
As I mentioned in the open, one of my heroes for a long time
was Pats quarterback Drew Bledsoe. Sure
he had weird eyes but man could he sling it!
But one day in 2001 Drew got hurt on a vicious hit by Mo Lewis and a
young kid came into the game you may have heard of. His name was Tom Brady. Bledsoe moved on with his life and career and
Brady has since gone on to win four Super Bowls and become one of the greatest
quarterbacks in league history. Guess
who has owned that mantle of my adult sports idol for the last 15 plus years?
This last week my hero did something that leaves me feeling
blue. No he didn’t deflate any footballs
or drive his car under the influence. It’s
worse; he endorsed Donald Trump for President! Yes it's true folks; not only has he been seen rocking a Trump hat, he
was quoted as saying “I hope so”, and “That would be great” when asked what he
thought about The Donald in the White house.
What a kick in the nuts!
There is a theory out there called the Backfire
Effect. In a nut shell it says that when
our strongly held beliefs are challenged by facts, instead of changing our
opinion on that issue we cling to it even more in the face of the truth. Ironically Trump's supporters have a bad case
of this particular disease, but that’s a topic for another day. I however am faced with this very
problem. Do I blindly support my hero in
spite of his clear lack of judgment?
It’s impossible at this point to dump him so that is not an option. In short I am stuck trying to do something
that comes really hard which is to balance my support for his play on the field
against my strong dislike for his support of Trump.
We humans love things to be black and white! Politics, religion, sports, relationships,
social issues, really almost everything is put in a box and labeled. It turns out that I am really good at
this. But lately this tendency of being
judge, jury and executioner has come under scrutiny. So this seemingly small thing is an
opportunity for me to explore life in the gray area. This would be great because Lord knows we all
could use more time in the gray zone. Of
course there are exceptions to that great graying of America. So to steal a line from the great Tony
Kornhieser, Donald Trump, go to your room!
Lets go Pats!
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