It's not easy being a famous billionaire sports legend, especially if you let your guard down and find out the hard way that your money will not hush up any lovers or buy you happiness. How the mighty have fallen. They so often do. Once the pinnacle of success and family life, this A-Lister has been flipped upside down by his Adam-and-Eve thirst for lust. Just because you are mega rich and famous, and can bed any starlet you choose, it will come back to haunt you sooner or later. And man, has it ever. Then, the cover-up begins as fawning agents try valiantly to spin your every dalliance. If only it had just been steroids.
I'm sure it is very difficult to be at the top of your game, with a fierce competitiveness that will not allow you to suffer even one defeat easily after a seemingly endless stream of wins. But, when you lose the biggest match of your life on the home front, there's rarely a chance to overcome that kind of loss. There's nothing to avenge. You'll never get to even par. Your game will most likely be altered forever. The saddest part may be that your wife and young children will pay a price that is impossible to estimate.
I can't pretend to know what it's like to be in a position like this. How on Earth do you cope when every camera, every reporter, every news outlet, and every tabloid is stalking each moment of your entire waking existence? This over-sensationalism of our news cycles even trumps stories far more crucial to the well-being of a nation and a world in extreme chaos and peril. That seems ridiculous and unfair. But unfortunately, that's just how it goes. You become the lead story on all channels and on all tickers simultaneously, all the time.
I suppose that when you signed on to be who you are in the celebrity sports world, you signed up for the consequences, too. Your privacy went out the window the day you began your quest to become the best at your sport, which without a doubt, you have accomplished. You've made your game so popular to so many of your fans that they also avidly play the same game every chance they get. A lot of their zeal for the game you play is because of you. You are the most successful and elite spokesman, not only for your game, but maybe of all time (apologies to Michael Jordon). They buy your shoes, your equipment, and lots of other unrelated items that you pitch. But, you're fair game to the media now because of the frenzy you have caused, both for the good things you have done, and now, for your bad example of how to be a husband, father and role model to the masses. Extremely unfair? Maybe. But, whether you like it or not, it comes with the territory and the company you keep.
Grant Brad Gerver is an entrepreneur and creative consultant for Filibi, a classified and online coupon advertising site and home business. He's also a YouTube Channel blues singer-songwriter and guitar player with The Buzzard Brothers. Additionally, Grant writes political humor, thousands of bumper stickers, and humorous movie reviews. He has also worked with various companies as a product-naming specialist. He's a retired elementary school teacher and published children's author who works in the health care field.
