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Once again, I seem to have discovered what's wrong with the universe. You can thank me later.
I can't help but be inundated with all of the media coverage surrounding Derrick Thomas's death a few days ago. The fact that Sports Center is about all I watch probably has a lot to do with this fact.
Anyhow, everything I've seen has constantly harped about what a great guy he was off the field. How he would go read to kids at the library every Saturday, how he was constantly visiting hospitals or starting charity organizations or buying meals for people. He was a great guy, and it's cool that he's getting this attention for being what lately seems to be one of the few NFL players not in serious legal trouble. (incidentally, I have his autograph somewhere; he showed up at my Little League baseball practice one week promoting some camp).
My question is, why is this the first anybody's heard of any of this? Why is the media so fixated on bad news that you rarely see anything positive? Sure, most news shows will throw in a human interest story at the end of the show or something like that, but headlines are nearly always bad. I'm sure the answer to this is that for some reason it's what gets people's attention. That fact sorta depresses me.
I guess sports figures have this possibly worse than anyone else. When's the last time you saw a story talking about a player's off-the- field activities that wasn't about them being arrested? Why does it take someone's death to bring into the open the great stuff they've been doing for years? It's frustrating.