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The secret lives of UT athletes
Posted By katie allison granju
Steve Phillips has some thoughts on judging young athletes without knowing what they’re dealing with or doing off the court or playing field:
I have a good enough memory to recall my own erratic and sometimes questionable behavior in my college years. (Some would say that would still apply today.) I also consider myself a reasonable enough person to wonder why any sane individual would want to make a living based on the output of 18-22 year olds. I literally thank God that there are so many who do.
You can’t help but wonder how many of the backslappers who have hailed Chris Lofton as a role model the past month had been dogging him for the last year because his level of play wasn’t what they expected. You won’t find many with the integrity to admit they got carried away about a game and questioned the heart of a young man who is the definition of courage.
I’ve often wondered how most of us would react to thousands of fans watching us do our job with the ability to give instant feedback. They may not know your child is sick, or your parent has died or that you were just diagnosed with a serious illness. But that wouldn’t stop them from judging whether you were giving good effort on that sales call, or whether you added all the numbers in column B correctly.
One recent athlete who left UT had a litany of family issues that would make the strongest of us stagger, and he was blistered by the very people who had cheered for him countless times before.
May 15th, 2008
