I used to wonder what it'd be like to collect a guy who was well spoken and cared about causes, that kind of thing, and Brandon Marshall's take on the Richie Incognito stuff really made me think about this again. Marshall had the following awesome quote in a Chicago Tribune article:
“Look at it from this standpoint,” Marshall said. “Take a little boy and a little girl. A little boy falls down and the first thing we say as parents is ‘Get up, shake it off. You’ll be OK. Don’t cry.’ A little girl falls down, what do we say? ‘It’s going to be OK.’ We validate their feelings. So right there from that moment, we’re teaching our men to mask their feelings, to not show their emotions. And it’s that times 100 with football players. You can’t show that your hurt, can’t show any pain. So for a guy to come into the locker room and he shows a little vulnerability, that’s a problem.
"That’s what I mean by the culture of the NFL. And that’s what we have to change. So what’s going on in Miami goes on in every locker room. But it’s time for us to start talking. Maybe have some group sessions where guys sit down and maybe talk about what’s going on off the field or what’s going on in the building and not mask everything. Because the (longer) it goes untreated, the worse it gets.”
That's just awesome. So many guys in sports are douchebags, have sketchy standards or morals, and then every now and then you find a guy like Marshall who stands up for what he believes in and says some awesome stuff. Of course he used to be a douchebag himself before figuring out his deal with bipolar (before treatment he had a domestic violence incident with his wife, since treatment he's clean and all is well), but that almost makes it especially cool because in a sport where guys just don't discuss off field things he worked on himself, bettered himself, and is now still playing at a high level while also having a positive impact off the field. A very cool guy.
So it got me thinking, do any of you guys collect a player because of his views/values/morals/etc.? The only ones that really come to mind for me lately are staunchly pro gay rights guys like Chris Kluwe and Scott Fujita. I know I've heard a lot of guys who collect players who are really religious and I guess that kind of fits the theme too...just stuff outside of the sport where you really feel like you align with an athlete's beliefs enough that a PC seems well worth it.
I collect different players for lots of different reasons. But I can't say that I've collected an athlete specifically for their views, values, or morals. As a kid, I loved watching Pride of the Yankees and admired Gehrig and his accomplishments. He seemed like a clean cut kind of guy with good morals (at least from the movie). Maybe one of these days I'll start collecting him.
ReplyDeleteI am a huge Gary Carter collector, but that is a cart and horse thing. I liked him as a player and he was a decent human being. You are going to laugh at one of my player collections and the reason. Back when in the day, before Brett Favre was "Brett Favre" he was a wild quarterback already traded once because of a wild streak and a bad reputation. He had won an MVP but he ended up in rehab. I watched his press conference after that incident in 1996 and I had never seen one like it from an athlete. He was contrite, he apologized directly and without cue cards, and he took total responsibility for his actions. I grew up watching and loving Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden destroy their lives and blame everyone else but themselves. But here was a dude who did the exact opposite of them (and a great many other players and people). At the time, I had been struggling with my own addictions and I liked his moxie. So because of Brett Favre and his no nonsense press conference about his drug addiction, I became a Favre collector. I also bought one of his jerseys. I try and remember this Favre when I look at my collection and not the lying retiring/unretiring joke he became.
ReplyDeleteThat's a pretty fantastic story...I dig it!
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