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Sports Professionals, Inc. is continually looking for examples
of professional and NCAA players fromall sports who have
transitioned into non-athletic roles. We use this information
in several ways:
- to add to our research of the transitioning athlete
- to continually add strength to our growing SPI alumni
network
- in our public relations work to combat the negative
stereotypes that exist in the media about athletes
- for our own personal inspiration
In addition, we will use some of your
stories as examples in our training classes, and may even
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pursue a few others for publishing purposes. Part of SPI's
mission is to not only to support the transitioning athlete,
but also to change people’s opinions and perceptions
of the transitioning athlete.
The media today bombards us with negative examples of athletes
in trouble. A recent study commissioned by one of the major
sports leagues asked about the publics opinions of the five
major male sports (NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS, and NHL) in regards
to what percent of players in a given league had: alcohol
problems, spousal abuse problems, used drugs, had children
out of wedlock, committed crimes, etcÉ The results of this
study were staggering. The public’s perception of players
in trouble was
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vastly higher
than reality shows. This shouldn’t surprise you; it didn’t
surprise us. Most people tend to believe what they read in
the paper, and if all they read about are the athletes who
are in trouble, its only natural to conclude that most athletes
are bad people and are always in trouble. We believe this
is not only a problem for athletes transitioning in general,
but it could eventually become a business problem for the
leagues as well. It also does not serve the 7-8 out of 10
players in a league who are wonderful fathers, solid community
citizens, and generous contributors of their time and money.
The stereotype needs to change. And that’s why we are
interested in your stories. |
