“Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”

Gen. Omar Bradley

And have we progressed since Gen. Bradley made this statement?   Not so much.

What is the matter with all of you? Have you completely lost it? You’re letting the tail wag the dog and paying an obscene amount of money to look like fools who can’t handle employees while you do it. And, sadly, you’ve been doing it for years. You’re supposed to be fairly bright - haven’t you figured out who’s supposed to be running things yet? here’s a hint: not the athletes and actors/singers/other celeb-types!

Had you not created the problems in the first place, I might feel a little sorry for you. But…Michael Vick, Brittany Spears, Lindsay Lohan…just the latest in the passing parade of children you pay ridiculous amounts of money, then sit on the sidelines and watch as these accidents looking for a place to happen, keep happening all over the place.

You know? For all the things the old Hollywood studio system did wrong, one of the things they got right was understanding that, for better or worse, the performers under contract to them were looked up to as role models by the public and they had a responsibility (there’s that word again!) to live up to that job, as part of the price of fame and fortune. Consequently, and with enlightened self-interest, the studios spent a great deal of time and money to make sure their performers became role models - by teaching them to look and act like ladies and gentlemen, if not all the time then at least whenever in public. In fact, part of many a contract included the penalties for misbehaving in public.

Where are the David Nivens, William Powells, and Myrna Loys? Or John Waynes, Sophia Lorens and Audrey Hepburns? They all had their flaws and foibles, no doubt, but they also understood the meaning of the word ‘discretion’. Sophia Loren has more grace and style covered in mud than Brittany Spears could posses if dressed by Edith Head!

We used to teach the same sort of idea in sports, whether it was learned in community athletic associations, junior high and high schools or college; it was called ‘good sportsmanship’. A big part of ‘good sportsmanship’ was behaving as ladies and gentlemen and understanding your behavior reflected not only on yourself, but on your coaches, team mates, schools and communities. It wasn’t long ago that the thought of bringing dishonor to one’s teammates, coach or school, by behaving like a jackass in public, was unthinkable (unless, of course, you were defending the honor of said school, lol).

When I was in the 8th grade, playing volleyball for my school, our team was the top in the league, unbeaten for that season. However, during one away game, after our match was over, the JV coach told all of us to stay on the sidelines and support the JV girls. Well, a few of my teammates decided they’d rather watch the boys play football. They were suspended from playing the next game. As it happened, that game was against our toughest rival. With three of our A-string players suspended, we lost, and with that loss we had to share the championship title and trophy with those same tough rivals. It was a bitter pill to swallow. I remember being furious with that coach at the time, while trying to argue my teammates’ case. But, as angry as I was, and as short-sighted as I thought that coach (who wasn’t even our coach - but ours agreed with him and rightly so) was being - he was right. I was wrong. Part of his job, and the job of all the coaches, was teaching us to respect all of our team mates, including and especially the younger ones, by watching their games and showing them our support, helping to build their confidence, rather than by demonstrating how cool we thought we were.

Well, fast forward to the last decade or so and, along with enormous salaries for athletes - especially basketball - has come equally enormous egos and all the problems that go with them, including felonies.

Someone please tell my why you owners and studio heads continue to put up with this crap? Do you think most of the public really wants to emulate, and have their children grow up to emulate the Michael Vicks, Brittany Spears and gangsta-rap flavor of the months? Do you think it’s more cost effective? It isn’t, and if you think it is then you deserve to go bankrupt.

However, I’d rather not see you go bankrupt at some point down the road - I’d rather see you consider some sensible (for everyone) changes:

Instead of giving that basketball phenom a $10 mil signing bonus, how about spending that $10 mil to teach your players to be ladies and gentlemen, teach them how to manage their finances, teach them how to give back to their communities and that that is an admirable thing to do - in short, teach them to actually be the role models people might admire and respect - and respect for something beyond their athletic skill only.

Maybe if you stop treating athletes and performers like high-priced, prima donnas  who can do no wrong, who’s displays of ill temper, poor taste, petulance, narcissism, bad manners, and over-whelming self-involvement and sense of entitlement should not only be excused but lauded - they’ll stop behaving that way.

Maybe they’ll even grow up a little, and maybe we, the public, will too. No, we don’t get a free pass for all of this either.

Now the problem with all of this is that it requires you team owners and studio heads to have some character yourselves, before you can teach it to others.  Bill Walsh had it.  Bear Bryant had it. So did others, who hopefully, are still alive, and still willing to teach the rest of us.  One of the youngest athletes who has it is Tiger Woods - his is a public persona to be admired as a good role model .  And one of the few sports left whose players still seem to understand the concept of ‘good sportsmanship’ is golf… and I don’t even play it!

DM