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A different way of life Trial highlights the peculiar tastes of athletes
It has been a very long time since I labored under the naive assumption that professional athletes live in the same world as the rest of us. I'm told it was that way once, as recently as the 1960s, when big-time athletes made only the same money as your average hometown, white-collar professional man. This was wrong, the result of a feudal system operated by team owners. Curt Flood came along and helped change all that and now top pro athletes are paid like movie stars. They are, as F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote about the very rich, quite different from the rest of us. No complaints here. This is the way it should be. Professional athletes are the drawing cards in a spectacularly lucrative money machine, the only reason for fans to pay ridiculous prices. (This past winter I took my family to an NHL game. We paid more than $400 for four good seats, but it was worth it for my 10-year-old, hockey-playing son to see Patrick Roy and Chris Drury in person.) What's more, athletes have to deliver performances on a huge stage. They deserve every penny they get, every playa in their posse. Big money, however, always leads in strange directions. In the past week, we've been treated to very casual courtroom testimony, first from Orlando center Patrick Ewing , describing the time he received oral sex from two women at an Atlanta strip club while at least two other men sat and watched; and later from Braves outfielder Andruw Jones, detailing a sexual encounter with two women from the same club, again while others watched. OK, let's take a step back here and follow the trail. Guy plays pro sports and makes lots of money. Fine. Guy goes to upscale strip clubs because that's where young guys with money go. Fair enough. Guy receives sexual favors. No shock, but a little cockeyed. Guy lets other people watch said sexual favors. Timeout. This is normal behavior? Another step back. We're all past the point of calling pro athletes "role models," whatever that means. Parents should be role models. Teachers should be role models. But kids aren't going to line up and ask for their math teacher's autograph. Like it or not, kids always have, and always will, look up to the people wearing the uniforms on SportsCenter. Occasionally -- frequently? -- these same kids have to hear that when the guys aren't wearing the uniforms, they do bad things. Fight with their wives. Use drugs. Drive drunk. That's life. Maybe there's a lesson to be learned when these things happen. "Everybody makes mistakes," or, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall," or something. The Gold Club trial seems to be pushing the envelope because it throws back the curtain on at least one aspect of the bizarre lifestyle of the rich athlete. VIP-room sexual favors with an audience? I can't help but wonder what Ewing was thinking at the time, but I'm guessing it wasn't about the little tykes in his fan club. Worse yet, how many kids (you pick the age group) will catch wind of the trial and think that it all sounds pretty cool? Not a good week in the hero business. Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.
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