A New Reason to Admire Pro Atheletes

We admire athletes for several reasons. We stand in awe of their physical abilities and like to watch them perform. Also, we invest athletes with an idea of ourselves and we cheer for them as our own representatives, whether rooting for our city's team or our country's Olympic stars.

Increasingly, sports fans and our communities at large are coming to understand the pressures that athletes face beyond the playing field.

The scrutiny of a sports star is double that of other celebrities when we consider the public nature of the athlete's position.

Tiger Woods is a prime example.

The Scrutiny

When Tiger is out on the golf course, doing his job, the world watches his every move. The twist of his wrist is analyzed and dissected by commentators far and wide. The substance of his thinking and emotions are weighed by people who have never met him and they are weighed on the air, by broadcasters speaking to thousands upon thousands of people.

And this is just at the golf course.

When Tiger Woods leaves the course - in what used to be his sponsor's Buick - he enters an arena of celebrity that is equally public. If he makes a mistake, the world judges him, as we have seen.

The scrutiny and the pressures of being a public figure while playing his sport and while living his life are each extreme and probably unimaginable for those of us on the outside.

The resilience and personal strength required to hold up under this kind of pressure is as admirable as the athletic prowess that drew the spotlight to Tiger Woods in the first place.

The Escape

Some athletes have trouble with the attention and the lode-stone of pressure laden on high-profile professionals. Starting NFL quarterback Vince Young disappeared during an mid-season one year.

Other players choose to leave the sport behind and retire when they are still able to perform at a high level. This is admirable in itself, walking away from a multi-million dollar pay day.

Barry Sanders did it. He walked away from professional football when he was still capable of setting and breaking a number of NFL rushing records. He was arguably still the best running back in the league when he called it quits.

Yet he hung up his cleats and offered a good-bye to the spotlight, its burdens and its benefits.

We have to wonder if it was the pressure of being a celebrity athlete that led Sanders to hang it up early.

Give Pro Athletes Their Due

The pressure of performing in the spotlight on and off the field has only increased since the great running back retired. And it is worth noting, with appreciation for today's athletes, the maturity that is required of them by virtue of their fame.

Not only do these men and women take the field and put their bodies into combat again and again, they also smile into the camera with great patience and great humility and let us imagine that they belong to us for a while, our heroes and our friends.

More from Associated Content:
Mike Tyson: A great boxer...among other things.
Tiger Woods: Degrees of Obsession