Sports stars are role models, whichever way you spin it

You could add to that litany of indiscretions the controversy over giving up smoking, the so-called “Joe the cameraman” affair and a long list of temporary lovers.

Others have not been as charitable. In the Sydney Morning Herald, a few weeks earlier, on the eve of the spinner’s marriage break-up, staff writer Paul Sheehan suggested Warne “should never again be allowed to debase the Australian colours by wearing them”. He described him as “a spinner in every way” and “a proven, serial, reckless, inveterate liar” (July 4, 2005).

But there he was at Old Trafford in Manchester on the opening day of the second Ashes Test, on August 11, 2005, holding aloft the ball to the adoration of the English crowd after dismissing English opener Marcus Trescothick. Then came the poignant moment when he kissed a white band on his wrist - a gift from his daughter. What the crowd was applauding was an outstanding sporting moment.

A day or so earlier, at the height of the hype after Australia’s two-run loss to England in the second Test, Warne, in talking up his chances for Old Trafford, suggested he would turn down a beautiful woman to be able to bowl a few more balls like the famous “ball of the century”, his first delivery in England in 1993 that bamboozled batsman Mike Gatting (Gold Coast Bulletin, August 3, 2005). The apologists would have you believe that it’s part of the larrikin that is Shane Warne.

I’m not only picking on Warne. He’s no orphan when it comes to sexual indiscretions by sports stars. Remember the furore surrounding former AFL Kangaroos captain Wayne Carey being caught having an affair with a team mate’s wife? Or the controversy surrounding the alleged rape of a woman at Coffs Harbour by some members of the Sydney Bulldogs rugby league team? Or the behaviour of a member of Britain’s sporting “royal family”, David Beckham?

And there are not only sexual indiscretions. How widely do you want to interpret “being virtuous”? Where does cheating rate? Or taking drugs? Or unacceptable behaviour in a nightclub either at home or while on tour interstate or overseas? Recall the performance of several of the Wallabies at a nightclub in South Africa recently that led to one being sent home in disgrace? As I polished the initial draft of this piece near the end of August 2005, the national broadcaster was reporting that two St George Illawarra rugby league players had been fined for “inappropriate behaviour” at a hotel in Wollongong (August 29, 2005).

The papers and tabloid television programs seem to be filled with sports stars’ indiscretions. That might seem an exaggeration, but few things will get politics off the front pages as fast as a sporting story and while often it involves an outstanding performance by an individual or team, equally, we continue to read about our sporting idols’ indiscretions.

There are many thousands of sportspeople who seem to be able to control their hormones. Or do they? Maybe they are just more discrete about their behaviour off the sporting field. Maybe they are not that famous that the opposite sex flocks around them and then runs to the tabloid papers and current affairs programs to cash in on their new-found fame by association.

The apologists for our wayward sporting icons blame the media for the unwanted attention.

Perhaps the question is not “Can our sporting stars be rich, famous and virtuous?” It should be: “Why shouldn’t they be?”

Part of the argument centres on the public lives of celebrities. Sporting icons are celebrities - they are paid extremely well for their achievements and some might suggest they have too much time on their hands. As an example, a golfer who wins a tournament in the United States can earn more in four days than the average Australian takes home from more than 20 years of nine-to-five toil.

As celebrities, the lives of sporting heroes are public property. Their adoring fans can’t get enough of them. There are rows of sports magazines in your local newsagency. We give each other sports books for birthdays and Christmas gifts. The media chronicles their every move. They cease to have a private life but they are paid handsomely for all the attention both on and off the field. (When I “googled” “Chris Judd” to find his online column about just wanting to be remembered as a footballer, two of the other websites thrown up offered - at a price - memorabilia associated with his Brownlow win.)