Sports Stars or Phony Primadonnas?

[eppie]

That said, I tend to agree with the assessment that too much attention is paid to professional athletes.  The "role model" myth is a false idol.

I think part of the interest comes from the plethora of sports "journalists," with each having to find something new to dig into for his or her Pulitzer prize.  24/7 sports coverage amplifies this problem. 

Over exposure is another way agents get name recognition for their clients so their endorsement deals are more lucrative . . . for which the agent often gets a percentage.
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I think you look at this from a too "small" point of view. You "blame" journalists and agents for this demise in sports.
I think this is just one of the outwashes that belongs so much to capitalism (please don't try to see this as an anticapitalistic piece, that is not my intent), and maybe more so to the "american dream", which no longer is just something for the US but in europe it is exactly the same.

First the old romans allready knew that you need to show games to keep the people quiet. Our society nowadays looks much like the roman one. A small group of people in charge...with a lot of money, and a large group of people, that are basicly just there to support the system that keeps the rich people rich.
You can show sports on TV and even make large amounts of money with it, because of commercials....and of course players get their share. As long as we keep watching every small unimportant fact about player a or b on TV journalist will keep making that rubbish.

The part about the american (european) dream is also very important. It is useful to show all these "normal" people from very poor backgrounds that now are incredibaly rich. This shows that everybody can "make it" (although only a small percentage of everybody how tries can really make it (in professional sport there is only room for a few thousand athletes). But it gives people hope...they think "one day I can make it as well". And if you give normal people hope....they will not complain very soon.