Terrell "Pom-Poms" Owens is playing in the Indoor Football League next season. Jeremy "Nobody Knew My Name Three Weeks Ago" Lin couldn't be more popular. See you later, me-first athletes. Nice to have you on the national scene, humble heroes.
Overplayed and over-punned as Jeremy Lin may be, he's just the latest in a contemporary trend of character athletes exploding in the media, blowing up ESPN, and infiltrating Facebook feeds. Here's a statement I know I'm going to need to explain, but bare with me: this craze is making society a better place.
The next generation of sports fans is watching. Kids pay attention to popular athletes' every move, and thankfully now, a lot of those moves are reputable. Charles "Weight Watchers" Barkley once infamously proclaimed: "I am not a role model!"
He was wrong. Once you're a public figure, you are automatically a role model whether you want to be or not. Though most athletes aren't positive ones.
Back when I was a sports-obsessed 8-year-old (read: spending as much time perusing CBS Sportsline and listening to AM radio sports talk as most college kids spend on Facebook), the guys dominating the media were nothing like Lin or Tim Tebow. My idols were Vince Carter and Allen Iverson.
I wanted to be just like them. I saved all my birthday and Christmas money to buy their jerseys and shoes. I'd lower my basketball hoop to seven-and-a-half feet and try to do the through-the-legs Vince Carter dunk (read: fail miserably every day). I even bought A.I. finger bands. Yup. Finger bands. I looked like a moron whilst tearing up (read: taking 75 percent of my team's shots) a small school fifth grade basketball league. All because I looked up to them.
I guess that's not all that bad, but the story doesn't stop there. I wanted to act like my heroes because, you know, I wanted to be them. I was an arrogant trash-talker who thought he was better than he was, who thought he was more important than the team. I cared more about my stats than our team's result. And when it came to practice, I could skip whenever I wanted to because Iverson made that cool.
Thankfully, I had some positive, caring role models in my life that quickly knocked me off my high horse – including a Coach Carter-like basketball coach who made me run suicides until I cried – but not every kid is fortunate enough to have those.
That persona worked for Vince Carter and Allen Iverson because they were talented enough, but it doesn't work for most wide-eyed kids. And that cocky "all about me" attitude is what has permeated sports culture for the better part of two decades.
Until this year.
I know there have been exceptions along the way (i.e. Reggie White, Mariano Rivera), but never has the media been so infatuated with good-character athletes. Players like Lin, Tebow, Kevin Durant, and Drew Brees are dominating their respective sports, and the media is embracing their meekness. Sure, for every one of those guys, there are probably 20 Floyd "Money" Mayweathers, but the fact of the matter is: Lin and Tebow have been by far the two most popular athletes this year, while Brees and Durant have been two of the most consistently dominant.
I know there are going to be haters whenever someone is doing something big, but why hate on Lin and Tebow just because they're different? They aren't supposed to succeed. They're underdogs. Kids are naturally going to want to be like them, and that's got to be good for society. They show kids that you can overcome the odds, and once you're a star, you don't need vanity to be charismatic and adored.
A couple days ago, a television reporter asked Lin which nickname he liked best: "Linsanity," "All I do is Lin," etc. He responded with: "I actually like ‘Jeremy,'" and then proceeded to credit his teammates for the Knicks' turnaround.
Believe it or not, UB has some quality role models of its own in the athletic department. Last semester, quarterback Chazz Anderson led the football team with his altruistic attitude and overwhelming desire to become a pastor. As for the red-hot men's basketball team, Zach Filzen and Titus Robinson spent their summer helping people in East Asia, and all the guys on the team are friendly and approachable. Oh, and head coach Reggie Witherspoon just might be the nicest person at this school. Talk to him just once and you'll understand. Just make sure you aren't Michael Porrini.
Kids line up for high-fives and autographs after every game at Alumni Arena, and the players always oblige. They understand that they're role models. The Buffalo Bulls may not be professional athletes, but that doesn't matter to the kids. In the youngsters' eyes, the athletes at UB are larger than life.
Linsanity might end abruptly and Tebow might not even start next year, but at least the youth of 2012 is seeing that you don't need to be selfish to succeed in sports. That's something we can all get behind.
Email: aaron.mansfield@ubspectrum.com
