Looting Records and Sacking Reputations

Records are made to be broken, and no place is this sentiment more true than in sports. Some records appear fragile when they are set, seemingly destined to fall into the hands of another within a brief matter of time. On the other end of the spectrum are those records that seem impenetrable to the assaults of mere mortals. A perfect example of the latter scenario was the 70-homerun season posted by Mark McGwire that eclipsed the long standing mark of 61 set by Roger Maris. Many felt that McGwire would hold the record for as long as Maris had possessed it, or perhaps for half as long, or at least for a full decade. But appearances can be deceiving. Barry Bonds came along and smacked 72 balls out of the park a mere three years after Big Mac’s season to remember.

In my youth, I had the privilege of watching a record set by a man who played for my favorite football team. This athlete had an extremely brash style that did not sit well with many, but I for one enjoyed every minute of his remarkable success on the gridiron. Not everyone was happy about Barry Bonds’ assault on McGwire’s still fresh homerun record, for Big Mac was an immensely popular player while the somewhat surly Bonds is less universally liked. It has been conjectured that disappointment at the brevity of time his name stood atop the record books hastened McGwire’s retirement. This could serve to even further diminish Bond’s popularity.

But whereas Barry Bonds may be less than loved by all, Mark Gastineau was flat out hated during the years he displayed his mastery of quarterback sacking. Gastineau played in a less selfish era than the current one. When he was in his prime, athletes in team sports were not supposed to draw excessive attention to their own individual exploits. Yet that is precisely what Mark did. He was setting a trend that would take a little while to be embraced. You could say he was a man ahead of his time, and such men are often disdained. Remember, once upon a time Muhammad Ali was largely despised for his braggadocio in the ring. Today he’s the beloved subject of a big budget movie.

Nowadays, when a football player scores a touchdown it is routine procedure for him to launch into a celebratory dance or over the top pantomime, just so long as it doesn’t cross the line into taunting. Some of the more elaborate performances look as if they were choreographed by the people who make pop groups like NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys appear to have such wonderful rhythm. Athletes like Deion Sanders came to prominence at a time after showboating had become acceptable and downright mainstream. Advertisers jumped on board to help cultivate the images of such crowd pleasing athletes, making a lot of people rich in the process. Free agency has made allegiances to players more practical than loyalty to particular teams. The more flamboyant an athlete is, the easier he is for middle America to recognize, which makes him the easier to market, and ultimately, the easier to cash in on.

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