Gotcha
Philadelphia Inquirer Sports Columnist Bob Ford writes about the Eagles, the Phillies, the Sixers and the Flyers.
Gotcha
Bob Ford, Inquirer Sports Columnist
Michael Phelps apologized over the weekend -- and had to leave Tampa before the Super Bowl! -- after a photo was published in the London tabloid News of the World that showed him using what appears to be a marijuana bong during a party at the University of South Carolina three months ago.
We'll leave aside for a moment whether the act itself is that big a deal. It is illegal and can bring a number of consequences because of that, etcetera, but that isn't the point here.
Someone at the party decided it would be cool to take a picture of the Olympic hero having a toke and then that someone, or someone else -- because the photographer just had to send the shot to everyone he or she knew -- decided this was not just a goof, but a money-making opportunity.
So, three months later the picture is the cover art in a trashy newspaper a continent away. No indication yet what the News of the World paid for the image, but it probably wasn't much. A lot less than Phelps will pay for it in endorsements and speaking fees and the like.
His fault? Absolutely. "Bad judgment," he called it, and there's no question about that. All it took was one jerk with a cellphone camera, and that's about as hard a combination to find at a college house party as stale nachos and bean dip.
But we wonder why the modern athletes don't hang around with the regular folks any more. We complain that they live in their gated communities and travel with a protective entourage when they step out in public. In the old days, you could run into a sports star, maybe have a beer with him, hang out a little.
Today, it's a "gotcha" world. Everything a celebrity does in public can end up on YouTube or the cover of a newspaper halfway around the world. Think Babe Ruth would have made YouTube now and then? How about Jack Johnson?
I don't feel that bad for Michael Phelps. He messed up the whole time-and-place thing. I feel bad that we live in a world where someone thinks this is an amusing thing to do to someone else, and where it's good sport to peddle someone's pixilated reputation for a few filthy dollars.
The real loser in this whole story is the person that handed the picture over to the press. Get a Life!— TheDude
Comment removed.- I know he has a lot of money on the line, but he has already made a furtune.....just once I would like for someone in his position to stand up and say, yeah I smoke some weed and i'm not ashamed or embarassed! Our gov't should be embarassed they allow cigarettes and alcohol which are both much much more harmful and dangerous, while they destroy peoples lives over a safer, relatively harmless drug because the pharmaceutical companies are pulling their strings so they dont to lose money to pot!— cujat13
- Phelps, and other celebrities and athletes, should start answering the media with a collective "who cares?" when it comes to marijuana. Because if you can smoke marijuana and still be the best swimmer ever, who cares? Drunk driving can hurt other people, marijuana hurts no one. The perception of it needs to be changed. If everyone stopped doing it behind closed doors, people would realize that everyone does it. Teenagers do it. Their parents do it. Their teachers do it. Their idols do it. Who cares?— seth.
- Pot pipe? It's a BONG. Is there some commandment in the world of media that says you can't use the word bong? They sound dumber writing about it then he does smoking out of it.— seal66
- Pot pipe? It's a BONG. Is there some commandment in the world of media that says you can't use the word bong? They sound dumber writing about it then he does smoking out of it.— seal66
- Comment removed.
- What's sad is not that Phelps can't avoid "gotcha" moments; it's that society smiles at alcohol use and frowns at marijuana use for no logical reason. Here's an idea: let's legalize it, regulate it and tax it. How many billions of dollars would we make? How many people who's lives have been ruined would we let out of jail? Most importantly--how much better (and peaceful) would the world be if marijuana was accepted and alcohol was the taboo substance. One thing's for sure--we now know that you can get high and still be one of the greatest athletes in the world!— troubledog
- Michael Phelps never impressed me as the brightest bulb in the lamp anyway. Legal issues aside, he just cost himself millions of dollars.— bcsk
- Yes ABC-ESPNs gotcha moment that revealed that Joe Namath was a drunk was awful. So awful that he got to hand out the league's SB trophy last night. PS, have never once seen bean dip at a college party. Especially at USC.— bobcitydoc
- Comment removed.
- First was the underage DUI in Maryland, now this. Whats next? Murder?? Please lock this loser up right now before he kills somebody.— Leron
- Anthonycbis and Moron: You are both fools for misspelling such each words. Get lives. You are embarrassments to your respective families.— Vituperator
- There will be many opinions about this...but Bob's post comes across as apologetic for Phelp's action. There should not be any surprise, nor any criticism of the person who took this picture. Anyone with Phelp's stature is hopefully intelligent enough to know that when you exercise the incredibly bad judgment that he did in a large crowd there are going to be people who will want to document it and share their knowledge/experience with others. This does not make them a jerk. It makes them very human in wanting to document that "they were there" and they are "Not making the story up". Whether this mind set is due to an inconsequential person trying to become important by capturing a "shocking" or significant event is a trivial question relative to the issue of drug use by athletes, the spread of the drug culture to all sectors of our society, the danger of "idolizing" someone for only one dimension of their life,etc. In my opinion, beating on the guy who took the picture, minimizes the significant aspect of Phelp's use and judgment. And that is unfortunate. p.s. In my opinion many of the comments on this blog regarding this topic illustrate the effect of cannabis and other drugs on the human brain and intellect.— bartfr
- so what...this is bs. the little swimmers won't be smokin' doobies before their meets. he's not perfect but he could become a more effective role model if he cleans up his act now.— natedog
