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 SPORTS
HEROES, FALLEN IDOLS:
How Star Athletes Pursue Self Destructive Paths and
Jeopardize Their Careers
August 2005
University of Nebraska Press
800-462-6420
ISBN 0-8032-4445-0
Order from University of Nebraska Press
Excerpts
Sports heroes frequently develop unrealistic views of
themselves that are encouraged and reinforced when an
adoring world treats them as elite. For many
players a sense of specialness if central to their
identity, strongly influencing their expectations from
the world and their treatment of others. Although
they may be giants at athletes, many sports stars have
trouble relinquishing this image in daily life.
Their personal interactions are often colored by this
inflated view of themselves. It requires great
emotional maturity to maintain relationships based on
equality and reciprocity when you are surrounded by
people eager to anticipate your every need.
Many star athletes have been catered to since
childhood and have come to accept special treatment as
their due. Celebrity status can be intoxicating,
and as athletes come to believe in their press
clippings, they feed off the constant attention and
acclaim bestowed on them. The roar of the fans
becomes necessary to their survival--a form of emotional
oxygen. Pumped up by such affirmation and
applause, they feel like royalty, and they often exist
in an unreal sports heaven. When you are among the
high-flying adored, your view of the world becomes
blurred. Off the field, some act as if they are
above the rules of society; hubris and an attitude of
entitlement ("I can do whatever I want") become central
to the psyche of many athletes. They may deny that
they are vulnerable to reprisals and feel omnipotent and
grandiose as well as entitled.
Our earliest image of ourselves is shaped by our
caretakers. When parents respond lovingly to them,
children gradually internalize a picture of themselves
as lovable. Thus, how we think about ourselves is
a product of cues we absorb from the world around us...
Sports stars learn about conditional love early in
life. A premium is placed on their physical
performance, and their value becomes measured by what
they produce rather than by who they are. They
learn that in order to receive approval and love, they
must constantly live up to their potential.
Conditional love, based on someone else's expectations
of how you to be, is different from unconditional love,
in which you are loved for yourself.
The downside of being placed on a pedestal is the
stress of maintaining outstanding athletic performance.
As you breathe the rarefied atmosphere, there is also
the constant pressure of living in a fishbowl. The
life of the sports hero entails not only basking in the
limelight but also dealing with pressures: The
pressure of being durable over the long season.
The pressure of living up to expectations. The
pressure of performing at a consistently high level.
The pressure of bouncing back from the inevitable
slumps. The strain of dealing with management, the
media, and the fans. The strain of having your
private life meticulously examined. Expectations
are never lowered, and any lapse may be magnified by the
press...
As a result of their inflated definition of
themselves, encouraged by public acclaim, many sports
heroes come to live in a world of unreality and foster
the illusion that they will be treated as special
forever and that these glorious days, this heaven on
earth, will not be gone anytime soon. They deny
the reality that for the vast majority, professional
athletes' careers last only a few years. Of course
their stars will always shine brightly, their fame will
escalate, and nobody will say no to them. Only a
few seem to glimpse how they might someday fall from the
pedestal. Like the typical adolescent, they are
present oriented, navigating their world with an
invincible swagger and they cannot fathom a time of
decline and morality...
Being a gifted athlete does not exempt a person from
mental health problems. Stardom is often
accompanied by stress that creates or exacerbates
psychological disturbances. Moreover, the
distorted self-image that many athletes acquire can lead
to serious lapses in judgment off the field, sometimes
with dire consequences. The Rae Carruth murder
case, the Denny McLain drug and racketeering conviction,
and the Pete Rose gambling scandal stand out as
examples. Most athletes find it extremely
difficult to accept mental illness. Depress,
anxiety, bipolar disorder, and paranoia, to name a few
syndromes, carry a stigma. Elite athletes are
programmed to be strong and in control.
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