You're a Profesional Athlete—Act Like One

Does Chris Perez really understand what it means to be a
professional athlete? Probably. But does he act like it?
Not at all.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

By now, I'm sure you've all heard about Chris Perez's latest string of Tweets from Sunday night, in which he berated people for Tweeting him more when the Indians lose than when they win.

While Chris Perez has the right to do whatever he wants with his Twitter—including criticizing fans—I don't have to like it. I'm a huge fan of Chris Perez the baseball player. But Chris Perez the person? I'm not so sure.

Allow me to explain—and stay with me on this, I promise you'll see my logic.

A few years ago, I went from attending a Sports Camp to being a junior counselor at the same place in consecutive summers (again, stay with me, I promise it'll pay off). This may or may not have been the best thing in the world for me, but it did mean I knew all of the people I would be working with quite well.

Anyway, one of the Senior Counselors I worked with always had these sayings—like "Safety first, last, and always." Or when someone we didn't know would come on the camp grounds he'd say, "Challenge them!"

But the one saying he'd always bark that stuck with me came whenever I'd make a mistake. He'd say, "You're an All-American, now act like one!"

Now I've never been an All-American at anything in my life before, and I don't anticipate it happening anytime in the near future, but the principle of the mater has always resonated with me.

If you're a high-profile person—a role model, or someone who ought to command respect—then you better act like it. You can't just do whatever the hell you want and act like a jackass. There are standards  and practices you must uphold if you want to have the respect that comes with your high profile.

And when I think about those standards and practices, there's one person that comes to mind as the poster boy for proper conduct as a professional athlete.

Colt McCoy.

I was at Browns Training Camp the other day, and after the end of the morning practice McCoy came over to the fans to sign autographs. McCoy obviously had a roller coaster of an offseason, highlighted by Draft Night when he tweeted congratulations to Trent Richardson for being selected by the Browns, and then went silent after the 22nd pick. Wonder why.

But I digress. McCoy came over to the fans, where some were yelling words of encouragement, and others...well, let's just say they weren't so encouraging. I'm not saying that they were being pure unadulterated evil to the guy, but everybody and their grandmother knows McCoy's not going to be the starting quarterback and some fans were making that quite clear.

And yet, McCoy didn't bat an eye. He signed autograph after autograph for a good five to 10 minutes, and while he didn't address the haters, every time McCoy finished signing and fans would give him words of encouragement he'd give a simple, "Thank you, I appreciate your support."

He wasn't brash. He wasn't annoyed with anyone. He simply signed his autograph, expressed his appreciation, and went on his way.

And that is exactly how a professional athlete is supposed to act in my book.

Look, Chris Perez is obviously not the same kind of person as Colt McCoy. If you think Perez wouldn't complain until the cows came home if Vinnie Pestano replaced him as closer of the Indians, you're delusional. McCoy has been nothing but a paragon of class, despite the fact that his father and his brother have done things that really didn't sit so well with the Browns organization.

Oh yeah, and the Browns took a 28 year old to replace him at quarterback, and McCoy still hasn't said boo about it.

This is not to say that I want all professional athletes to just be silent, and only give the canned answers the PR reps train them to give. That's not it at all. I just don't think Perez understands what it means to be a professional athlete.

He doesn't seem to understand that it's just not a good idea to complain about fans when you just got swept by a last place team. He doesn't seme to get that saying "it's baseball" isn't an excuse for being swept when you're supposed to be a contending team. And most of all, he doesn't seem to understand that he's a professional athlete—he's making $4.5 million dollars. Why does it bother him so damn much that people are ticked off after a loss, and don't always praise him after a win?

Hey Don Draper, isn't there something that might make up for the lack of tweets?

Well how about that. I guess that $4.5 million is supposed to count for something.

So, again, Chris Perez the baseball player? Great. Chris Perez the person? I'm not sure I like him so much.

Cause hey, all those things I said he "doesn't understand?" It's way more likely that he understands them just fine and is a jackass about them anyway. And because of that, I don't know that he'll ever really be one of the professional athletes I look up to and admire.

~MAS