cover image Sports Heroes, Fallen Idols: How Star Athletes Pursue Self-Destructive Paths and Jeopardize Their Careers

Sports Heroes, Fallen Idols: How Star Athletes Pursue Self-Destructive Paths and Jeopardize Their Careers

Stanley H. Teitelbaum. University of Nebraska Press, $29.95 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-8032-4445-0

Drugs, gambling, domestic abuse, even-occasionally-murder-all are part of the day-to-day existence of the world-class athletes profiled in this sobering account by psychotherapist and lifetime sports lover Teitelbaum. Beginning with the old saw that, in our hero-obsessed culture, star athletes are ""catered to since childhood and have come to accept special treatment as their due,"" the author quickly gets to work detailing the many instances where this well-developed sense of entitlement has led to personal and social carnage. Teitelbaum goes beyond the headlines to devote chapters to less famous gambling scandals (star pitcher Denny McLain bet with mobsters during the 1967 pennant race), serious drug deals (in 1996, Tampa Bay Buccaneer Eric Austin was sentenced to 20 years in prison for drug smuggling) and chilling incidents of domestic abuse (in 1998, football player Tito Wooten was accused of punching, choking and kicking his girlfriend). While Teitelbaum does cite ""an erosion of morality and ethical behavior in the public sector,"" he is not a moralist, but objective and unsympathetic in his detailed examination of the foibles, compulsions and pathologies of the men and women many fans still idolize.