Sports reveals
character, it’s often said, but sometimes an athlete’s off-the-field actions
can be even more revealing – and not always for the better.
Last weekend the Tim Tebow
Foundation put on its annual Night to Shine prom experience for a whopping 75,000
people at 350 churches in 50 states and 11 countries. The event is for people ages
14 and older with special needs. “The Night to Shine movement is more than just
a prom,” said
Tebow. “It is a night where people with special needs shine and they are
told that they matter, that they are important and that God has a plan for
their life!”
In a promotional video,
the former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback (and now a Mets
outfielder) Tebow is shown flying to Haiti to kick off this year’s celebration
and dance with some of the special needs kids before jetting off to other Night
to Shine locations. “I love these kids and celebrate them,” Tebow says of the
Haitian children, and you believe him.
Love him or hate
him – and wearing his Christianity on his sleeve has earned him many from both
camps – it’s difficult to doubt Tebow’s sincerity or joyful commitment to
charitable works. In fact, Tebow is better known for his unusually forthright
Christianity than his on-the-field achievements. And he almost certainly would
prefer it that way. One gets the impression that he is unimpressed by his own
celebrity status but uses it to serve others.
Speaking of status,
very few former athletes have achieved the degree of celebrity of David Beckham.
One of soccer’s all-time greats (though many would consider him a better
ambassador for the sport than a player), Becks nonetheless is far more widely-known
as an influential style icon and Spice Girl husband with a net worth of upwards
of $350 million.
Beckham found
himself the
center of a humiliating scandal when leaked emails from 2013 allegedly
showed how desperate the superstar was to be awarded a knighthood by the Queen
of England. They also suggested that he could fly into a petty rage when denied
that honor.
The emails strongly
suggest that Beckham and friend and PR adviser Simon Oliveira strategized to
ensure that the former’s charity work would get him dubbed “Sir David.” As one
source put it, “Humanitarian causes were just a stepping stone for his personal
affairs, and to project his image among advertisers.”
For example,
Oliveira advised his client to publicly oppose the Scottish independence movement
because “your support will play well with establishment and in turn help your
knighthood.” Beckham reportedly replied: “Ok let’s do it.”
As the time to
announce the year’s recipients neared, a British newspaper published a
front-page story with the headline “Arise Sir David,” suggesting Becks was a
shoo-in. Ahead of a TV appearance by Beckham, Oliveira emailed the program’s
producers to suggest that “Maybe [host] Jonathan [Ross] should ask about the
knighthood and say he should get it. What do you think? David is up for it.”
Apparently they agreed – Ross did indeed bring it up on the show, and Beckham
played along.
When he learned a
few weeks afterward that his bid had failed, he allegedly ranted at members of
the Honours Committee in an email, calling them a “bunch of c****” and adding,
“Who decides the honours? It’s a disgrace.”
Beckham then
reportedly turned his jealous petulance on mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins, who
was awarded an Order of the British Empire the same year Beckham failed to get
a knighthood. The OBE is bestowed by the Queen of England for public service
and contributions to the arts and sciences. Beckham himself was given one in
2003. In an email to Oliviera, Beckham allegedly scorned Jenkins’
qualifications: “Singing at the rugby and going to see the troops plus admitting
to taking coke? F****** joke.”
There’s more, but a
Beckham spokesman dismissed all the emails as “taken out of context” and “hacked
and doctored.” A source “close” to Beckham, however, said that his rant about
the judges was real and understandable:
“David is just
like any normal person and he was extremely disappointed that he wasn’t deemed
worthy of becoming a Sir… He spent a lot of time and effort getting the London
Olympics to the UK which had such a positive effect on so many people, but for
it not to be acknowledged made him very emotional. Who wouldn’t be?”
A more humble man,
that’s who. It’s almost impossible to picture Tim Tebow making such a petty
outburst for being passed over for even a prestigious award. “I think the
greatest [character quality] to possess is try to be humble,” Tebow has said. “How
can we do that? I believe it’s by being a servant.” While no one wants to be
undervalued or unacknowledged, cynically working a charity as part of a
strategy to earn the honorific “Sir” demonstrates a repellant lack of humility.
It’s unseemly at best, dishonorable at worst.
To be clear, there
is no question that both former footballers have done admirable charity work,
and that’s what matters. The issue, and the difference, is the disgraceful
revelation that Beckham’s motivation seems to stem from a self-aggrandizing
ambition, a barely-contained lust for recognition. That’s not a crime; this is
hardly immoral on the scale of, say, the Clinton Foundation, which took
advantage of the Haitian people after a devastating earthquake there by
funneling countless millions of dollars in relief funds to friends, donors, and
reconstruction projects that never materialized.
But the emails, assuming
they have not been doctored as claimed, nevertheless reflect ignobly on Beckham.
Sadly, we inhabit a trash-talking, selfie-taking, self-promotional age that
doesn’t value honor or humility much anymore, so perhaps Beckham will emerge
from this scandal unscathed in the long run. It would be a shame if, along the
way, the pop icon isn’t compelled to reevaluate himself, take a page from Tim
Tebow’s playbook, and learn a little humility in service.
From Acculturated, 2/15/17
