With his recent shenanigans, Michael Phelps has officially been welcomed by the final demographic of the proverbial pie.
He had teenage girls the second he took off his shirt and revealed his 16-pack abs.
Young men couldn’t help but be awed and emasculated by his eight gold medals and thunder-deltoids. Beijing’s golden boy even had adults in his corner with his poise and humility in front of the camera. And now, his aura has reached the final group to withhold its approval: potheads.
In case you’ve been out of the planet for the past week, a photo surfaced in a British tabloid magazine that showed the uber-Olympian taking a rip off a marijuana bong. The press, as expected, has enjoyed a heyday with the photograph and umpteen columnists have condemned Phelps for his actions.
I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to sit here and say what an idiot Phelps is for smoking pot. He’s a 23-year-old man who accomplished more in 50.58 seconds than I will in a lifetime. He can make his own decisions.
What I will condemn him for is his massive lapse of judgment when he decided to chief in the middle of a South Carolina University fraternity party. In an age where my 8-year-old neighbor has an iPhone with a built-in camera, it’s probably safe to assume young 20-somethings are bright enough to figure out that a cell snapshot featuring a pot-smoking superstar is worth big money.
Perhaps even more saddening than the photo-worthy public puff is the message it sends. Don’t worry college students, this isn’t going to turn into a “but what about the children?” column.
The message I’m most concerned with is the one that tells intermediate-to-advanced level athletes that marijuana doesn’t damage your athletic abilities.
For the past two days I’ve read internet-blogging smokers proclaim they were right about marijuana – that it can’t hamper performance.
The claim was easily dismissible when the Mavericks’ Josh Howard made it. Now that the best Olympian and arguably the best athlete ever – someone with seemingly iron lungs – is shown as a smoker, the drug’s use appears a bit more justified.
But I’m taking the scientists’ side on this one. I believe he never smoked during his preparations for Beijing and that the photo – which was taken two months after his gold medal bonanza – simply captured a rare mistake.
I refuse to acknowledge the message that proposes marijuana doesn’t reduce athletic abilities.
Now I just hope Tom Brady isn’t caught with the herb this offseason. That would really fuel the blaze (sorry, couldn’t help myself).
