Young Athletes Face Struggle

BY CLAIRISSA MYATT

Staff Writer

Young Athletes Can Find Maintaining A Reputation Hard After Success!
Young Athletes Can Find Maintaining A Reputation Hard After Success. Stock Photo.

When thinking of young professional athletes today, the TV series “The Young and the Restless” comes to mind. Not so much for the content of the show, but for the title.

Professional sports in general have been highlighted in the media non-stop lately. Not only referring to the NFL abuse cases, but to the young stars as well. Yes, I am referring to the infamous Jameis Winston and Johnney ‘football’ Manziel.

Both football stars in their early twenties, Manziel 21 and Winston 20, have experienced the media in full force at such a young age. With attention and egos on the rise, it was clear both boys would be headed for danger.

As many have read, Winston has recently been charged with a second allegation. Earlier in 2014, Winston was accused of sexual assault, following that up with stealing crab legs from Publix and finally, we have the most recent speculation over signed autographs and the acceptance of money from the young quarterback.

Quickly we have seen him turn from a super star player to a guy who frankly, seems to not care at all about his actions. It is without a doubt that the ‘careless’ attitude streams from his growing ego, which furthermore resulted from the media attention.

When you are the star player thinking that everyone wants you, what is there to worry about, right?

Wrong. A quarterback is supposed to be a leader and the problem with Winston is that there is no learning curve. An NFC scout told Bleacher Report, “he’s gone from a top-three pick to a late second-rounder,” due to his behavior off the field.

With all of the chaos that has been happening in the NFL lately, the league needs well behaved and honest role models and leaders, that of which Winston has not shown at all. He is expected to enter the 2015 draft and we will all have to wait in anticipation to see who is gutsy enough to take on the scandal plagued Winston and the media attention that goes with it.

The same thing has happened with Manziel. The young quarterback from Texas was recently drafted to the Cleveland Browns. The media had followed this young football star, documenting his seemingly luxurious life.

He had the money, the parties and the girls, all of which you may find with a simply Google search. The media followed him from the first day of practice. Johnny ‘football’ the overnight celebrity who soon became a household name.

The minute after Manziel got drafted to the Browns, t-shirts were being printed for Ohio fans to sport the next day. After all, it was a great day for Clevelanders, but Manziel was in for a ride.

Manziel himself faced an autograph scandal in 2013. Straight away into the beginning of football season he was benched.

The point is, immediate media attention only hurts young players. It gets the best of anyone. Being in the early twenties is a gullible age. There is much learning to be done and it is easy to become trapped into all of the attention while ending up getting oneself into trouble.

Although these athletes may not be actors or singers, they are still to be considered celebrities. Moreover, we see this with young Hollywood stars every day.

Athletes lives change drastically after they become known to the public and experience a high volume of success. Stock Photos.
Athletes lives change drastically after they become known to the public and experience a high volume of success. Stock Photo.

Miley Cyrus, an innocent child singer and actor turned wild this past year. Amanda Bynes, the comedian that kids of the 90’s grew up watching. Lindsey Lohan, the twin we grew to love and made us all beg our parents to go to summer camp.

Above are many child stars who had experienced the kiss of death from media attention. Although they may have different career paths than athletes, if there is one thing they all have in common is that their names are constantly in the headlines.

It does not matter if one is an actor, a singer or an athlete, quick success can be the thing that ultimately defeats one. If not careful, it can ruin their future.

 

Clairissa Myatt

Clairissa Myatt is an alumna from Lynn. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in multimedia journalism and a minor in sports management. Over the past year, Myatt has had amazing writing opportunities. From being published in a national magazine for youth sports to being a contributing writer for Elite daily, she is eager for what the future holds for her career. With a passion for fitness and writing, she hopes to be able to combine those two things into a career that never leaves her with a boring day at the office.

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