-- Steve Johnson, "President Barack Obama, Michael Phelps, Bishop Richard Williamson, Miley Cyrus and Tom Daschle all offer their 'apologies'" (Chicago Tribune).
A photo surfaced of Phelps with his mouth going down on a bong and any speculation as to whether it was merely a decorative object or also a functional one flew out the window when Phelps and his agents released the following statement: "I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment. I'm 23 years old and despite the successes I've had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me. For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public it will not happen again."
Early in the love-fest ("We love you!!!!") at his blog, spicyrunner posted the following:
On: Feb 1, 2009 5:05 PM CST
"It won't happen again???" But I seem to recall you getting a DUI awhile back...and you apologised then too. So substance abuse seems perhaps possibly to make occasional problems for you???? A role model athlete sucking a bong??? It matters Michael, children/teens look up to you.
JKidd99 concurred:
On: Feb 1, 2009 6:19 PM CST As a mother of a 9 year old swimmer I am disappointed in you and your behavior now and during the last few months. You have every right to vacation and down time, but you broke the law and you expect people to condone your actions and your arogance is disturbing. I am a single mother raising a son and there are enough drugs in the streets and schools. Having a role model smoke weed is not good. You need to do more than a prepared statement from your manager. Hope there are not morals clauses in your contracts. You would not pass.
As far as we can tell, no one pointed out that six months passed at his blog before he updated. Maybe they all assumed he was a very busy boy?
Boy? Boys and girls look up to him. In the eighties, Paul Reubens lost his Pee Wee Herman gig because Reubens frequented an X-rated movie house. That was ridiculous. And clearly Paul Reubens was not Pee Wee Herman. In heavy make up, Reubens played Pee Wee. There's no line between Michael Phelps swimmer and One Toke Mikey.
Phelps could come out strongly for legalizing pot and we'd applaud that; however, if he wants to say it was wrong, then he's not advocating for any change and we're left with a well known swimmer who broke the law when he was the hero of millions of kids.
Boy?
Phelps wants to pin the blame on his 'youth.' He's 23-years-old. To some that might seem young but it's not. He's been an adult for five years. Long enough to know the rules. And, point of fact, he knew pot was illegal before he took the bong hits.
Boy?
At twenty-three, what the hell was he doing a college party to begin with? In November, he visited the campus of the University of South Carolina. What the hell was the 23-year-old doing at a college house party? Long before you're 22, you tend to sneer at college activities. But there's Phelps, partying with the 'kids.' It's a bit like a 19-year-old rushing off to a high school dance.
Boy?
Micheal Phelps earns approximately $5 million a year via his celebrity endorsements. That's really all he has. He doesn't have a swimming career. He may compete in the next Olympics (2012) but most expect that to begin the downfall. He won six gold medals in 2004 and eight in 2008. 2012 will, at best, find him matching the 2008 stats and, at worst, find him falling far below them. Should the latter happen, the $5 million (even if no more scandals emerge) will drop significantly. In terms of his asking fee, he needs to either win 8 more gold medals in 2012 or hang up his damp Speedo today. Any other decision risks his quote dropping.
When you haul in five million dollars on your name only -- not for producing anything, not for writing anything, not for doing anything excepting lending your name -- you damn well learn to protect it or you watch its value decrease.
All Michael Phelps has is a name and the hope that he can inspire millions of kids. It's up to him to protect his own name if he wants to make a dime off it. And if he expects to land the big endorsement deals, he better grasp that the corporations aren't tossing coins at him because they like him, because they think he's intelligent or because they give a damn about him.
They're only interested as long as his name makes them money. When that stops happening, they drop him.
A DUI at 19, bong photo at 23. Someone's not taking the image very seriously.
To be perfectly clear, no one has to be a role model. But when you take on that role, you do have to live up to it. That means no breaking the law. Michael Phelps was happy to play role model when the money was being tossed around. He was happy to grab the Kellogg money and appear on their cereal boxes where he was proclaimed the "Baltimore Bullet" and "one of the greatest athletes of all time." He was more than fine with Kellogg praising him for "years of training and personal sacrifice, the loving support of a wonderful family, coaches, teammates and friends -- plus a healthy lifestyle." He knew, the advertising insisted, "the importance of starting each day with a good breakfast" -- it said nothing about "and finishing it with a good bong hit." Which is, no doubt, why Kellogg dropped him last week.
It's not a minor thing. If you're going to set yourself as a role model for children, if you're going to market yourself as such, if you're going to rake in money doing so, then you have to live up to it. If you can't, it's not due to "youth" or due to an "indiscretion." It's because you're not up for the job.
We're not calling for the stoning of Michael Phelps. We are saying (a) a brave pot user would have stepped up and said, "I believe it should be legal" and (b) if you're taking the position that you did something wrong -- and your action broke the law -- then you really aren't a role model for children. This isn't one of basketball's 'bad boys' getting busted for whatever. They don't generally set themselves up as role models for children. It's not an entertainment scandal for the same reason.
So while we're not calling for his stoning, we're saying that people need to stop minimizing it. Or acting like it's non-news. In a hilarious quote, a university professor embarrassed herself stating this story was preventing other stories (including the Iraq War) from being covered. Her inclusion of Iraq just demonstrates that she's not paid attention to the news in some time.
During the Clinton impeachment, the press couldn't stop their false moralizing about what a blow job meant to children, how would it effect them, what would they think, would they be scarred for life . . . Micheal Phelps markets himself as a role model. His recent embarrassment is worthy of more than a few lines of copy. One wonders where the university professor is when Britney, Lindsay and assorted other women's scandals are grist for the mill day after day? Oh, that's right, we only need to move along when a man's the center of a scandal.
We don't believe in the scarlet letter but if this society does -- and judging by its treatment of women, it does -- it damn well better start pinning them on equally. We'll let Michael Phelps have the last word:
On: Feb 3, 2009 4:15 PM CST Hey guys - thanks for your comments. I really appreciate you standing by me…this has been tough…I meant what I said, I made a mistake and I'm sorry. And for those who are mad at me or no longer support me, all I can say is I'm sorry