BY: VIRESH
Many
athletes today are criticized for the activities they participate in outside of
their specific sport. Vast criticism takes
place at college campuses, where teenagers are becoming young adults. In this
transition, I believe many college athletes tend to exhibit two separate, yet
very unique lives/perspectives. These unique personalities relate to Connie’s
unique characteristics in the short story Where
Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates. Connie’s unique personalities
did not coexist in the same environment. Connie’s timid and more mature personality
exists while she is at home while her outgoing and affectionate personality
exists when she is away from home.
Similar to Connie’s altered
personality at home and away from home, I believe athletes have altered
personalities on the field and off the field. On the field, athletes are mature,
disciplined, respectful and responsible. Off the field, an athlete is free from
responsibility and maturity. On the field, an athlete is developing his/her
career. Off the field, an athlete is a common, ordinary person who attends parties
and socializes with friends. These personalities do not coexist so, which of
these personalities are reality?
One
perspective is that an athlete’s personality on the field is reality, while his
personality off the field is fantasy. Sports analyst and sports media usually agree
with this view, which greatly influences common public moral that maturity, manner
and responsibility as well as a career goal should be considered reality. This
perspective was supported by June’s parents, who praise June for being
responsible, intelligent but simple. This personality would probably be ideal to
majority of people and can be argued as reality because their definition of
reality consists of words like discipline and stable job or good paying job.
On the other hand, some people believe
that an athlete’s personality off the field is reality, while his personality
on the field is fantasy. This can be argued to be reality because it portrays
true expression. Outside of her home, Connie was outgoing and expressed herself
the way she felt she really was, something she couldn't do at home due to the
disapproval of her parents and other relatives. Similarly, athletes can express
themselves with their own unique personality when they are not placed in front
of a camera.
One recent example of these differing personalities were
Johnny Manziel who was criticized for being at “a rival school’s frat party and
an autograph fiasco that got him suspended for the first half of the 2013
opener”.
The full article about Johnny Manziel and the criticism he
encountered is here:
I believe that athletes are actually a mix of their two "separate personalities." On the field they may rise to the challenge and become better versions of themselves; however, as Manziel has proven, the man on the field is but a glimpse of who someone truly is. I think that the athlete usually represents the more mature version of the individual, while the student may be still developing and may choose to make bad decisions that affect him/her on the field as well as off the field.
ReplyDeleteI like the discussion on Athlete's personalities both on and off the field. My personal opinion with this is that you can't assume which personality is the "real person." Everybody is different and they all have different processes and views going on in there minds. I think the best way to describe it is that they are probably a mix of the on and off the field personalities.
ReplyDeleteI think that the dual nature of athletes may be due to the different pressures and expectations they face on and off the field. On the field they are definitely expected by their coaches/fans/teammates to do well, otherwise they could end up losing their spot on the team. Off the field however, there is a totally different set of expectations where many athletes are expected to take part in partying and other activities that we may frown upon just because it's part of the lifestyle of being a celebrity.
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