That's Just Like... Your Opinion, Man

So let's shift gears for a second here. I want to move entirely away from baseball for this post to focus on the Michael Phelps thing.

We have a 23 year old kid who just won six gold medals and two bronze at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. There's only one other Olympian who has ever won 8 medals at one Olympics (some Russian gymnast whose name I will not attempt to recreate here). The guy is pretty much a Greek God among men, rivaled only by Usain Bolt, who arguably had the best single Olympics performance of anyone.

But that's fine -- Usain can be the Greek God of the land, Phelps of the water. The point is that our Neptune (or Poseidon, if you'd prefer) has gotten into a little spat with some South Carolina authorities over a recent photograph.

Leon Lott, some podunk South Carolina sheriff (wouldn't it be cooler if it were Leon Lett?) has come out of his shroud of obscurity to claim that Phelps is just like any other criminal, arguing that this case may be even easier for him to make since we have a photograph and a partial admission.

Two other parties, the University of South Carolina (on whose campus the incident took place) and the Columbia police department have already stated that they will not take any punitive action against Phelps. And with good reason -- Phelps has refrained from specifically stating publicly that he smoked marijuana, and all the photo clearly shows is that he is in possession of drug paraphernalia.

Setting the specifics of his case aside, the immediate reaction of most people I've encountered has been "So what, he's a kid, it's just some pot at a party." And this is clearly a very rational response. If he had been smoking cigarettes at a party -- an act unquestionably worse for one's health -- would there be this much media attention? If he were shown chugging a beer? For the latter, I assume there would be a fair amount of media coverage, but not to the extent that we have now.

But the issue or rationale of marijuana legality is not really relevant to this argument. What is relevant is that this is a sports hero, an icon to many youngsters, who actively campaigned for anti-doping throughout the Olympics, and who now is pictured publicly engaging in behavior that brings him back down to reality.

I don't buy the argument that Phelps shouldn't have done this because he is a role model. It's not his duty to live anyone else's ideal life. What he does is certainly his own business, and he shouldn't be criticized for doing what he wants (especially when the alleged "crime" is so minor). What Phelps really should have been considering is what kind of ramifications this act could have on his big name endorsements. We can shout all day that kids will be kids, but for a Nike or a Gatorade, having one of your biggest athletes all over the internet taking a hit from a huge water bong isn't exactly good for business. It would be a completely rational and understandable business decision for them to pull his face off their products and ads.

All that said, what Phelps should have done after he took the pipe away from his face was punch the photographer in the face and smash his camera.

Well... maybe that wouldn't be the best PR move either.