I was scanning through my radio presets the
other day when I stopped on a sports talk radio program talking about
Roger Federer, the number one ranked tennis player in the entire world.
To my surprise, though, instead of talking about his impressive 2009
season where he won two grand slam titles and made it to the finals of
the two other ones, they were instead talking about his personal life,
namely the fact that instead of being a single bachelor he decided to
get married last year. They were actually making fun of him for
settling down, wearing one of those men’s wedding bands, and having kids instead of pulling a Joe Namath and playing the field for a one night stand.
Is this what it’s come to? Why are we mocking our athletes (and movie
stars and music stars, etc.) for getting married while they are still
famous? It’s not like Federer married some random chick he met at a
famous nightclub. He married his business manager who he had been
dating for five years. How come Beyonce can sing a hit song about a
women wanting a wedding ring from his boyfriend as a feminist anthem (I
won’t even get into that), but a famous male athlete get’s chastised
for settling down? He’s the greatest tennis player of all time and
arguably the greatest ambassador the sport has, he’s earned whatever he
wants to do.
The talk show hosts were pretty much intimating that he should be
dating supermodels and not worrying about changing diapers (Federer
just had twins). Wouldn’t it be more distracting for a famous athlete
to date and then have to deal with breakups? One of the things that
make’s Federer so great is that he always seems so focused on the
court. Doesn’t having a stable relationship help him on that? While
dating a string of models is nice for some people, if you find someone
who makes you happy why not settle down? This guy makes tens of million
dollars a year, I’m sure he’s not worried about status.
But anyway, why is this our business? Don’t we complain about
celebrities who change beaus and often as they change clothes? So why
are we mocking a guy for doing the exact opposite? Shouldn’t he be a
role model? “Hey, here’s a guy who does the right thing on the court
and off it.” Not that getting married is necessarily the wrong or right
thing, but someone shouldn’t be looked down at for doing that in his
mid twenties. He just came off one of the best years of his career.
Obviously married life is treating him pretty well.
