So Mark McGwire retires this week, saying he just can’t perform at the level he used to and doesn’t want to be a burden on himself or the team. He even turned down a $30 million extension in the spring because he wasn’t sure if he’d be around to make good on it.
Meanwhile, Deion Sanders was recently asked if he missed being in the NFL and replied, “I miss the $8 million I was supposed to make this year.”
This is same guy who once said of fans who booed him: “Tomorrow morning they can get up at 7 and go to work. I can get up at noon, maybe, and count my money. I don’t worry too much about those people.”
You mean besides throwing it in our faces that he’s filthy rich and doesn’t give a rats ass about those people who paid him all he money he now has to go see him play? Actually I wouldn’t get upset at him either, but I sure do hate his ass for doing that. As a prominant public sports figure he should know better.
The last time he came up for the Reds, he was staying at the luxury hotel across the street from the place where I work, and I’d run in to him out on the street or see him riding his scooter every couple of days.
He’s a decent enough guy in person. We’d exchange “How’s it goin?” or a nod and a wave.
I agree that the state of professional sports in today’s day and age is pathetic. I believe that professional atheletes, in general, make way too much money for what they do, but I’ve accepted that as a given and that it won’t change any time soon. The thing that really gets me are these jerk atheletes that complain when they don’t get their $20 million this year and go on strike, or the ones that have such an attitude as if their sh*t don’t stink because they are professional athelete and make all this money and we don’t.
Yeah, Deion actually has a reputation for being a really nice guy in person. I doubt you could find a single teammate of the guy who would have an unkind word to say about him. He was very well liked by his teammates on the Falcons and the Braves during his time in Atlanta.
My impression of Deion is that he’s an overgrown kid, irresponsible maybe, and prone to ill-advised remarks to reporters, but generally good-natured and likeable.
This is the thing I don’t understand. Just because a person is good at sports why do we expect them to be nice people too? Your town may have the best garbage man in the world, but if he turned out to be a complete wanker you’d just shrug it off.
