Arenas Provides Example for Athletes in Trouble

By: Sef Gold

Many people perform reckless acts and use bad judgment that leads to trouble on a daily basis. When one of these populace is an elite professional athlete, the spotlight of shame shines ever so bright. For professional athletes, any situation involving a police investigation opens the floodgates of speculation. Everybody seems to hear a different story of what ‘really’ happened and each passing day brings new ‘evidence’ that condemns the superstar in the eyes of the fragile public.

Flashback to a few months ago: Gilbert Arenas found himself in an un-admired position. It is at this point in time when the professional athlete must start damage control to his or her image. From the very start, Arenas fully and openly cooperated with not only the legal investigation, but also the league’s inquiry. He was honest with the commissioner the entire time. Arenas took action even before his sentencing to express regret in by doing a tell all interview.

It is these steps that make Agent Zero’s image much easier to rebuild. When a crisis happens, the reaction that occurs often determines how a person is viewed. Most people can forgive and forget a mistake. When there is a cover up or even the appearance of anything else crooked going on behind the scenes, the added shadiness will cause a more severe backlash than the original incident. For now, Arenas will serve his month in the halfway house and then begin performing community service, yet much of the work to repair his image has already been done. When it comes to crisis management, Gilbert Arenas hit the shot.

E-mail Sef: sef@afcnorthtalk.com