During the NFL Playoffs divisional weekend, a curious trending topic on Twitter and sports blogs left me questioning the power of the sports blogosphere and the changing role of athletes in our society.
As Green Bay Packer fans celebrated their team’s berth in the NFC Championship game, an unwarranted attack on Aaron Rodgers’s character was well underway on the Internet. On Friday Jan. 14, Rodgers and his teammates were making their way through the airport before catching their flight to Atlanta for their Saturday game against the Falcons. Green Bay’s local ABC news affiliate WBAY-TV was on hand to document the eager Packer fans mingling around the airport, hoping to get a last minute autograph. The news crew interviewed Jan Cavanaugh, a huge Packer fan and breast cancer survivor who was hoping to get Rodgers’s autograph on her pink Packer hat. The news report then cut to a shot of Rodgers wearing ear buds as he casually walks right past Jan, waiting with pink hat in tow.
The total time of the clip was about 15 seconds. By Saturday, the clip was posted on the affiliate’s website, and by Sunday, the blogosphere had picked it apart and made wild accusations against Rodgers, stating he had intentionally snubbed an autograph request from a fan recovering from cancer.
Seemingly leading the charge with perhaps the harshest and most vocal criticism was Mike Florio, a respected NFL blogger from the NBC-affiliated ProFootballTalk blog. In a scathing article titled “Aaron Rodgers has a lot to learn about where his money comes from,” Florio wrote to his large following of readers that the video was akin to “Rodgers treating a cancer patient like a panhandler with leprosy.” He lambasted Rodgers for his treatment of Cavanaugh and concluded that he must be a cold-hearted, disrespectful jerk. As the story spread throughout Twitter and YouTube, more people seemed to be discussing Rodgers’s airport mishap on Friday than they were his performance on Saturday.
For the record, Rodgers had met Jan and her husband the week before, where he had signed a jersey and helmet for her, but there were no cameras or media around to capture the moment.
I’m not going to spend the rest of this article defending Rodgers actions, but I just find it somewhat disheartening how the media and prominent bloggers resort to conjuring up controversies about big name celebrities in the same vein as those trashy tabloid magazines you find on grocery store checkout stands. Perhaps it’s simply a sign of the celebrity-obsessed culture we live in, and our society’s fault that we’re all so fascinated with rich and famous people being publicly humiliated. Juicy gossip about a celebrity, whether it be Kobe Bryant or Miley Cyrus, seems to be the easiest way for bloggers and news outlets to increase their site traffic. It’s led me to believe that after speculation of Tiger Woods’ infidelity was confirmed and became the sports story of the year in 2010, every news outlet and blogger is on the hunt for the next “big one.”
Take another example of overblown speculation that was sparked in late December 2010, regarding New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan and his wife Michelle. Deadspin.com received a tip from a reader that there existed a foot fetish video on YouTube featuring a woman that looked suspiciously similar to Michelle Ryan. After doing some investigating, the site posted an article titled “This May Or May Not Be Rex Ryan’s Wife Making Foot-Fetish Videos.” While it was never confirmed whether or not the video they posted was actually Rex or his wife, the rumour was out there in the blogosphere and before too long Rex was deflecting questions from the press, and everyone, from bloggers to late night comedians, were taking shots and making foot fetish jokes.
I guess I should just accept the fact that athletes are celebrities, and are therefore susceptible to the same scrutiny and rumour mongering as any movie star, musician or famous socialite. With more and more high-profile athletes seeking to be included in the same limelight as other celebrities, they should already know the price of the fame that they’re seeking.
But on the other hand, should bloggers and sports reporters really be concerned with digging up dirt and focusing on the private lives of players and other team personnel? I’ll concede that when an athlete is in trouble with the law or breaking their league’s code of personal conduct it seems acceptable to expose, crucify and laugh at their expense in the public arena; take Michael Vick and his now infamous dog-fighting racket, or the Brett Favre scandal involving a former NY Jets employee. But digging up rumours simply to knock someone down a peg seems childish, and I would hope that people would have the decency to not intentionally try to ruin an individual’s image.
Returning to the Rodgers debacle, I openly question how some commenters could jump to such a quick and damning conclusion. Basing an opinion of Rodgers’ character on such a short clip, which offered no context whatsoever, proved to be a foolhardy attempt at exploitative journalism. A follow-up piece done by WBAY-TV revealed that Cavanaugh herself was quite disappointed by the reaction that news story had caused and never wanted to be made out to be a victim. This follow-up forced Florio to back up his statements, posting two follow up articles: one on Monday defiantly defending his original stance, and a second article a day later ultimately apologizing to Rodgers, Cavanaugh and Packer fans for causing unnecessary negative press.
One has to imagine, however, that from this point on Rodgers will stop to sign an autograph for a fan if there are cameras rolling.
