Do sports fans really care about an athlete's personal life and/or misconducts?
I care
When an athlete is abusing drugs or causing mayhem due to his or her personal life the entire organization is affected. When the organization is affected than myself as a fan I am affected. For example, I've been a die hard Yankee fan my entire life and when media start to question weather a guy like Jeter who is classy and always professional has abused drugs because of past Yankees who have during their successful time ( A-Rod, Darryl Strawberry) ETC., that personally upsets me.
Posted by: dukefanAlthough there is no one answer for everyone, many sports fans are truly offended and upset when an athlete's personal life is poorly handled and abuse of power takes place.
Michael Vick is a good example of sports fans truly being outraged by his personal life and misconduct. The shock gave way to anger which gave way to many voicing the need to boycott him and let his career be over.
Posted by: Ramon GriffithSome people base opinions of players on their personal life and not just their athletic performance.
Just the other night I was on one of the popular social networking sites reading some updates from my friends. One person put a status that said one of the teams should lose because one of the players on the team was once accused of rape. Most people seemed to agree with that status. That proves that people will use personal opinions of someone's character to decide whether they will remain a fan of an athlete.
Posted by: StevyDemonSports fans absolutely care about the personal choices and actions of their favorite athletes, because they live vicariously through them.
The personal lives of athletes are no different from those of the average individual, save for the fact that they are in the spotlight. As such, sports fans live and die on what happens to an athlete and the choices that he or she makes. This can be likely attributed to two ways thinking. The first is that many fans live vicariously through the athlete, and thus feel passionately about their choices and actions. What affects the athlete, affects the fan. The second plausible explanation is much more simplistic: misconduct by an athlete may lead to inhibited playing time, and thus hurt the team and the chances at a title.
Posted by: LivingRoosevelt78I agree with the fans care about an athlete.
Each and every athlete gets grace among peoples when they getting continuous victories. At the same time, when popularity comes, the fans will watch each and every move of the player. Due to their grace, the personal affairs of them affects the fans. At the same time, their grace will go down when they have any misconducts.
Posted by: JasmineYYes of course. People follow athletes careers often from college to retirement it would be impossible to not care about their personal life.
If people didn't care the Tiger Woods debacle would not have gotten so much attention and air time.
Posted by: etchedgrphxI believe that sports fans care a great deal about an athlete's personal life, because misconduct off the field can cause problems on the field.
I believe that fans do care a lot about athletes' personal lives. What they do off the field can get them injured to where they are unable to play for a season. Arrests and legal trouble can also keep them off the field. Sports fans are very serious about sports, and want their players to take it seriously. They also look to players and athletes as role models for children, and want them to behave in a way that is an appropriate example.
Posted by: SilentIgnacioBecause sports fans become so deeply involved in their favorite sports, I think that they do follow and care about athlete's personal lives.
Sports fans become so emotionally involved in their favorite sports that I think they do care or at least are very curious about the lives of sports figures. They may not care on a deep personal level, but they certainly follow the sports figure's lives. Just look at the amount of news coverage sports figures get. This should indicate the level of interest in our society about their lives.
Posted by: 54IInfernoSports fans do care about an athlete's personal life and misconducts. Athletes are role models and they motivate fans to build similar characteristics and behaviors.
Every athlete is a role model to their fans as a person become a fan because he likes the responsibility, reliability, strength, confidence and intelligence of that sportsperson and hence want to become like him,, but if sportsperson does anything wrong in his personal life or misconducts in his life, then it also hampers the life of the fan as one always want his sportsperson to be at the top and hence motivates his fan for his life.
Posted by: RingJonasYes, because many sports fans hold athletes morally responsible for their actions.
Although sports fans watch games for entertainment and competition, a true sports fan is also interested in the lives of the players. These players become role models and, if they misbehave, true sports fans hold the athlete morally accountable. A great case in point is Michael Vick, a football player who was arrested and went to prison for his participation in dog fighting. Many people still do not like him, and you can hear it in the boos from fans when he enters the stadium.
Posted by: SpikyWesley
b-rad
no body cares anymore because all you here about is this guy cheating on this girl no one cares everybody just want to see their sports team win
Posted by: AnonymousI do not think sports fans care as much about an athlete's personal misconducts. An athlete's athletic performance matters much more than their personal lives.
There have been many instances of athletes having off the field transgressions only to be later cheered on by avid fans for excelling on the field. In 2009, Alex Rodriguez was at the center of a steroid scandal, but the fans applauded and embraced him after having an incredible post season to lead the Yankees to a World Series victory. Despite an alleged sexual assault, Ben Rothlesberger is still a folk hero in Pittsburgh. Countless other athletes have been embraced by fans after drug allegations, affairs, and other questionable items in their personal lives. To these fans, the athlete is simply human off the field. The fan wants to see super-human performance on the field.
Posted by: balam49I do not believe sports fans care about an athlete's personal life, because they still root for criminals.
Sports fans only care about an athlete's performance on the field, and do not care about athletes' personal lives and misconduct. Many of the top stars in football, baseball, soccer, hockey, and others, have had problems with the law or personal life issues. Some have overcome these issues to make a better life for themselves, and some have not. Regardless of their off the field issues, fans only care about their teams winning and the athlete's ability to help that cause. Only when the athletes are struggling, do off the field problems become reasons for not liking the athlete.
Posted by: GlossyCyrus79I do not think that sports fans care as much about an athlete's personal life as the general public does.
I think that sports fans are really more concerned with the athletes' effect on the sport they participate in. I think the general public tends to be more interested in the scandals of their personal life. For example, I noticed during the recent scandals of Tiger Woods' affair and Michael Vick's dogfighting participation, the sports magazines on the rack seemed to make less of the issues than did gossip magazines like People. I think that the sports fans are more likely to concern themselves when personal issues like scandals or drug use affect the athlete's participation in the sport, causing changes to team rosters and changing the playing field.
Posted by: Shim2freeSports fans only care if an athlete is winning or losing and could care less about an athlete's personal life.
At the end of the day all sports fans care about is whether their favorite athlete is winning or losing. Time and time again we see sports athletes who have problems or make big mistakes in their personal lives. Fans as a whole either don't care about or tend to forgive these issues in the athlete's personal life as long as they are performing well on the field.
Posted by: AxelNic3rI think the average sports fan is more interested in whether an athlete wins or loses, rather than personal life or misconduct.
We hear a lot about the personal lives and the misconduct of athletes, but when push comes to shove, I think the average fan is far more interested in whether the athlete, and his team if he is on one, wins on game day. All the rest might be interesting to read, but it doesn't affect the main reason people look up to athletes: their athletic abilities.
Posted by: SuddenRashad84Most sports fans are fickle and care only about a team and not a player.
Most sports fans are so fickle nowadays and while they may seem to jump on a particular athletes band wagon, they are really hard core fans of a team. If an athlete of a fan's home team has a rough personal life or perhaps gets in trouble with the law, the fan will not likely jump ship. He may temporarily have a bad taste for that person in his mouth but will likely still be a fan if this person helps the team.
Posted by: TedieDelightSports fans really don't care about an athlete's personal life and misconducts.
Sports fans choose some sportsman as their idol and support them. They just love to shout with joy over the victory of their idol and shout with disgust when their idol performs poorly. They express enjoyment when they see their favorite player playing and doing well and their attitude is contradictory over the adverse situations of their favorite player. When their favorite player does some misconducts, they also express their feelings as a mark of disgust. This is just a chance taken by them to air their feelings, but they really don't care. This is really the materialistic world and nobody cares for each other, same with the athletes and their fans.
Posted by: taiboxerNo, most fans believe winning is more important than anything.
Our society has become overly competitive. Young children start at an early age to be overly involved in sport, losing the perspective of balance and understanding the proper place of leisure sport in one's life. This over-emphasis on competition and winning leads to people valuing winning too much and from there to doing all that can be done to win. This leads to the dehumanization of athletes and expecting them to be better or more perfect (even by cheating) than real people.
Posted by: R43ShepTrue sports fans could care less about the personal lives of athletes.
True sports fans care about the sport and what the athletes do while they are playing their sport. They really do not care what they do outside in their personal lives. People may read about what they do, because it is entertaining, but when it comes right down to it, they could care less about anything except what they do for their sport.
Posted by: babydollxix