Even though most people strive for
success, our society has a unique fascination with human failure. This could be
because scandals embody emotion and passion, which are characteristics that
people feed off. Or it could be simply because focusing on other’s conflicts
distract people from their own mundane life and/or problems. Whatever the reason may be, when someone
messes up people typically want to know every little detail about the
situation.
Now of course everyone makes
mistakes, but when celebrities and professional athletes are involved people
become even more interested because these figures are constantly in the public
eye. People are passionate about their sports and the players that make up
their favorite teams, which is why fans become so interested in a sports
scandals. Over the years the media has learned what attracts viewers and try to
cater those desires. Arthur A. Raney and Jennings Bryant write in The Handbook of Sports and Media that
“media consumers report that they view mediated sports because of the emotional
rewards they receive from doing so”(315) but people also become interested when
a scandal occurs. I am not implying that
fans want professional athletes or those in the public eye to fail, I am just
saying that people typically tend to become even more interested in the
incident because society places these figures on such high pedestals and they
look up to these athletes as role models.
Two examples that come to my mind
are the Tiger Woods and Barry Bonds scandals.
Tiger Wood was seen as one of the greatest golfers of all time until
word got out of his multiple affairs. After the leak of his adultery, Wood’s
image was tarnished forever and it will be difficult for his fans to ever
forget about what he did, regardless of how successful of a golfer he is. I remember that when the news first came out
it was all over the media and people talked about it for weeks. This just shows that people sometimes become
absorbed in sports scandals. Even
though Barry Bonds beat Hank Aaron’s home run record in 2007 I know people
still don’t consider him the home run leader because of his steroid
scandal.
Sports scandals also attract
people’s attention because of the impact it has on society. For instance, I have been following the
recent scandal with the Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino and his
25-year-old girlfriend because I think that this could potentially have an
impact on me. It is obvious that sports are a field that is male-dominant as
the text suggests, but over the years women have started to become more
qualified. As a soon to be college
graduate that hopes to pursue a career in sports I feel like scandals such as
this could make it even more difficult for women to have equal opportunities in
the sports industry. Dorrell, Petrino’s
girlfriend, was clearly not qualified for the position at Arkansas but Petrino
hired him because it was his girlfriend, which is simply unethical and wrong.
An article in Sports Illustrated
interviewed Christianne Harder who applied for the player development position
at Arkansas. Harder previously worked at
the Stanford and Washington programs and appeared qualified but wasn’t even
given an opportunity to interview because the job went to Petrino’s girlfriend.
While it is inevitable that sports
scandals will continue to occur and surface throughout the media, it will be
interesting to see how it will impact society.
Will people continue to become captivated with emotion or disappointment,
or will people start to become un-phased when a scandal occurs? Only time will
tell.
