Ok, so when we started the U/S Sports Advisors blog back in October, 2007, it became part of my daily routine to pour through the sports biz pubs, like SBJ/D, ESPN, SI, etc. to see what the latest hot topic was to reflect on. Time and time again, not only did I find lots of hot topics, but many times they were centered around athlete controversies.
Disorderly conduct, doping, dog fighting, DUI’s, illegal betting, drug usage, and the list goes on.
Each time a new round of stories hit the wire, they always came with a spin of the “freakish outbreak” of athletes misbehaving, abusing their privileges, what have you.
But I’m here to tell you the real deal of these incidents. They are not isolated, disconnected, or flukes. They are all part of the same fluid pattern — examples of flaws of the system.
Athletes these days are among the highest paid professionals of any discipline in the world. And, with those pay checks comes a whole entourage of, not only people, but responsibilities, stressors, and expectations. What they do not typically come with, is a sufficient infrastructure, teaching these young athletes how to handle it all. Hence, the constant “controversies.”
Now, there’s not a lot to say about dealing with the sports performance demands on athletes. They are what they are. Athletes are paid to perform –- to deliver results and wins. Aside from a little meditation, I’d say these stresses are pretty static.
Where I can offer some advice, is when it comes to the sports business demands in their entourage of challenges. The smoother the business side goes, the better the performance and social sides will get. They say 90% of sports is mental, and I believe that to be true on and off the field of competition. Dealing with agents and the media, negotiating deals, managing employees, investing those big pay checks wisely. These are all constant weights tied around the emotional development of these athletes.
My advice to athletes? Get your business affairs in order now. Educate yourselves with the right questions to ask, where to go for critical information, and organize your business life in an easily manageable and trackable order. Push your leagues and sanctioning bodies to provide better resources for you in these areas.
While I’m by no means relieving you of the tremendous responsibilities that come with the luxuries of your profession, I am calling attention to the continued epidemic that has somehow drifted under the radar, only detected in “isolated incidents.”
I just can’t bare to watch as my next hero falls to the “outbreak” that has been plaguing sports – at least since October 2007.
Posted by Krissi Price
