You probably live under a rock if you haven't heard about the Michael Phelps situation by now. I don't think I'm alone when I say...Leave the poor guy alone! I admit that the situation has probably made things tough for a lot of parents of child-swimmers, but let's look around the sports world folks...it ain't exactly rated G. I think the lesson to learn for parents is don't let your children become so obsessed with any celebrity or athlete to the point that they'll mock every single little thing that they do.
Now Michael Phelps might be more of an all-American role model for younger athletes than other celebrity-athletes, but it's not like he shot himself in the leg...and it's not like he's going to trial for his recent 8 GOLD MEDALS because he was taking performance-enhancing drugs...and he's not pulling a Ricky Williams either and taking a year off swimming to smoke weed full-time. Personally, I think he's deserved to let loose after DOMINATING the Olympics.Now comes the issue of his endorsements. Don't be fooled by Kellogg's stating that the reason they dropped him was because he does not fit their image...they probably wished this happened sooner in his contract. They just got some great publicity, "regaining the trust" of the parents who buy sugar-loaded cereal for their Speedo-wearing children. And it looked like Subway was going to as well, but they may have changed their mind...not sure how I feel about that.
Anyway, I'm backing Phelps on this one and holding a grudge. No Frosted Flakes for me...not that I'm an enormous contributor to Kellogg's in the first place, but call it a protest.Enough of me ranting though...Seth Meyers on SNL pretty much summed it all up:
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2 comments:
Sorry KDawg, not with you on this one.
If you choose to break the law as a public figure, you have to live with the fact that your endorsements can't endorse you.
Also, I get kind of bothered by the public's general indifference to athletes using ILLEGAL drugs. Drugs = illegal. Pot = illegal. Steroids = illegal. If I got caught smoking pot, I'd get arrested. If I got caught buying/doing steroids, I'd get arrested. ...and rightfully so - it's illegal.
Athletes getting dropped from ad campaigns or getting suspended from sports for doing illegal drugs is a no brainer to me.
What I meant to emphasize was that the reasoning for Kellogg's dropping Phelps was more out of hope that they would retain customers rather than actual concern of an illegal activity. I'm not saying it's unfair that Phelps was dropped; he was asking for it. Kellogg's had a contract with him for ONE MORE MONTH. Very few people would have immediately thought of Kellogg's when hearing about this situation. They took advantage of the opportunity.
I agree with what you have to say about steroids. And I agree that when athletes are caught BY POLICE smoking pot, they should be arrested. Not by assholes who sell a photo of you with a bong to a tabloid. If someone took a picture of you with a bong and sent it to the police, in most parts of the country, chances are they would not send out a search party for you.
So by law, if you're caught smoking pot by police, I agree you should be arrested. However, many parts of California have a very lax attitude toward pot and rightly so. Off topic, I think this should be the case around the country. The only danger of pot is the greed of dealers who use guns.
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