On January 9, 2010 Alex Rodriguez received the Baseball Writer's Association of America's Postseason MVP award after helping carry the Yankees to a 27th World Series title. After receiving the award Alex joked, "Postseason MVP. What's next, the good guy award?" He knew then, as he knows now, he wasn't the most revered person in baseball. Almost four years later to the day, on January 11, 2014, Alex received the largest suspension in baseball history, 162 games.
It seems the greater an athlete is, the easier it is to tarnish their image. Between the years 2001 to 2008 A-Rod was arguably the best player in the game. During that time he won three MVP awards, made eight all-star teams and won two gold gloves. Then the stories hit. Joe Torre, his former manager, wrote a book saying teammates called him "A-fraud," stories surfaced about how he made his assistant put toothpaste on his toothbrush after games and above all Selena Roberts broke the story that A-Rod took steroids. His image was at an all-time low.
Alex isn't the only major athletes to have fallen from grace. Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods and LeBron James have all had their share of image trouble as well. In July of 2003 Bryant was arrest for sexual assault. At the time he was the premier player in the NBA. He had just come off of three consecutive championships and led the league in scoring the previous season. When the sexual assault charges hit things quickly changed for Kobe. Several of Bryant's sponsors left him and many fans had deserted him. He was left with the one thing he could do well, play basketball. And the only way he could be liked again was to be great again.
On June 16, 2008 Tiger Woods improbably won the US Open of golf. He played the championship on one good leg. There is even a story that his doctor told him to sit out the tournament because he needed surgery. His response to his doctor was, "I'm going to play the US Open and I'm going to win it." Well he did both. After famously tying Rocco Mediate with a difficult putt on the 18th hole in round 4, Tiger limped his way to the title the next day. About a year later his world fell apart. In November of 2009 The National Enquirer posted a story about Tiger having an affair with a nightclub manager. The next couple months roughly 18 other women came out and said they had slept with Tiger. Instead of winning golf tournaments, Tiger became a joke to the American public. Similarly to Kobe, Tiger lost many of his endorsement deals. His days as a "squeaky clean" American athlete were over.
On July 8, 2010 LeBron James hosted a TV special called "The Decision." He had finished playing seven years with the Cleveland Cavaliers and became a free agent allowing him to decide what team to join. He had won two NBA MVP awards and had led the Cavs to a NBA Finals appearance in his time there making him a beloved Ohio athlete. During the event James announced he would leave the Cavs and join the Miami Heat. "The Decision" drew much criticism. It was said that his "decision" took too much time to come out during the event, his line "take my talents to South Beach" was made a joke and many people felt like James was a traitor and betrayed his hometown team. People that once called James "the King" had lost all respect for him. He could no longer be the savior the NBA desperately needed since Michael Jordan's retirement.
Something funny then happened with all four of these athletes. Yes A-Rod had taken steroids, Kobe had been arrested, Tiger cheated on his wife many times and LeBron disgraced the game. But then each of these guys began winning. And America likes nothing more than a winner.
Kobe won the NBA MVP award for the 2007 and won consecutive championships in the 2009 and 2010 seasons. In the meantime Kobe had gained back many of his sponsors and was once again an athlete people rooted for. Questions about his affair had dissipated, fans started buying his jersey again and Kobe was no longer the most hated guy in the NBA. He was, in fact, beloved again by many because he won.
Tiger Woods had gone through a rough patch in the immediate aftermath of his cheating scandal. Fans hated on him for making a Nike commercial using the voice of his late father, calling it disrespectful. But then, similarly to Kobe, he started winning again. He hasn’t won a major tournament since the aforementioned 2008 US Open but he has regained the number one ranking in the world and has won the PGA Tour Player of the year twice since the scandal, in 2009 and 2013. Many people still don’t like him but he’s still the biggest name in golf. The PGA tour needs Tiger to be good. Ratings are still at all-time highs on Sunday when Tiger is on the leaderboard. People watch when Tiger is playing because we are in awe. Many people do root for him to fail. But there are still a lot of fans hoping he will do well and that’s more than he could have said in 2008.
“The Decision” made LeBron James look like just another arrogant, egotistical athlete. It left his camp reeling and fans bad-mouthed him for it. He had become hated at an all-time high level. Many felt he spurned his former team and his home city. LeBron, at that point, did the only thing he could to gain back favorability; he played basketball. And he played it very well. He went on to make it to three consecutive (and counting) finals appearances and winning two of those. He is now number one in NBA jersey sales and funny enough, Bryant is number two. Both of them were hated not too long ago. The only thing that changed was winning and now they’re obviously beloved.
It seemed after 2009, Alex started on the same path as Bryant, Woods and James. He was a winner and a winner on the biggest stage. He was clutch in the 2009 playoffs and played like a man on a mission. People said all the pressure was off him now because he had admitted his steroid use and that he would be a different man. Then his notorious postseason failure started in again. He batted .219, .111 and .120 in the 2010, 2011 and 2012 playoffs, respectively. The choke artist had returned and any chance he had of fixing his image had vanished. His image took another hit in 2013 when his name came up in documents for purchasing more PED’s. And when he used his rights to ask for an arbitration settlement of a 211 game suspension players and fans admonished him. His appeal was at an all-time low and he was hated by almost everyone.
America loves comeback stories. America loves winners. All four of these men had tarnished their respective images. Three of them came back and made it right, by winning. Alex was on that same path to retribution but somewhere along the way he took a wrong turn and now there’s no way back.
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