By: Bones
I’m tired of people jumping all over Andre Agassi about his recently released autobiography, ‘Open’. As you probably have heard, his book reveals that he hated tennis most of his life, his famous lion mane of a haircut in the early ’90s was a hair piece, and that he used meth while still an active player, and then lied about it to the ATP, tennis’ governing body.
Since its release, it seems that anyone and everyone has condemned Agassi- one of the most common refrains I’ve heard is that he is being incredibly selfish in tarnishing the reputation of tennis though his book. Are they kidding? The only reputation that he is tarnishing is his own. I don’t feel anything less or more towards the sport because it turns out that one of its players has had some serious issues. It seems to me that those saying that are the ones being selfish- attacking someone that seems to be telling the truth about his life and saying that he should’ve sat on the information, no matter how that affected him further, in order to save the sport’s reputation. Another thing I’ve heard a lot is a knee-jerk condemnation of his meth use, and subsequent lying about it. Martina Navritilova, a tennis legend in the women’s game, went as far to say that Agassi, to her, was on the same level as A-Rod in terms of his drug use. That statement is so ill-advised that it is embarrassing for Navritilova-the difference is not even comparable. A-Rod and a bunch of other baseball players busted for steroid use willingly took substances that were intended, and if you go by the numbers, were in most cases seemingly effective, in enhancing their abilities on the field.
Agassi took, at a very low point in his life, one of the most addictive, damaging substances on earth, something capable of incapacitating people to the point where it would be difficult to hold down a job manning the fryer at McDonald’s, let alone play world class tennis. To compare the two is a joke, and Navritilova, as well as other tennis stars who have come down on Andre including Roger Federer, Raphael Nadal, and Marat Safin need to take a serious look at the way they view what Andre did. Safin said he should forfeit his titles. To quote John McEnroe, “you CANNOT be SERIOUS!”. Yes, he lied about his use to the ATP- but honestly, who would’nt? Once again its a case of people getting on their high horse and claiming they would do things differently if put in situations they know nothing about. Its sad that everyone’s reaction is always to pile on someone who is down. I watched Agassi’s interviews, and to me he seems like an eminently likable, straightforward guy who actually has gotten something that helped him by coming clean about a life full of lies. It seems that the debate is whether he did it for money, but trashing your own reputation by revealing all these personal items, when you don’t need the money whatsoever, seems unlikely.
Personally, I admire the way that he went about it, and I think that all those condemning him should cut the guy a break. He’s far from perfect, and so are you. Honestly, if all professional athletes wrote a book about their lives, and were completely honest with it and didn’t hide anything, I think 90% would have some pretty shocking things in it. The road to becoming a professional athlete in this country isn’t like everyone’s else’s lives. It involves dedication, temptation, money, sex and a million others things on a level most of us will never know. To assume that athletes should or would be perfect is ludicrous.