Cautionary Tales in the Phelps Saga
There's three cautionary tales in the Michael Phelps tokeing saga. The first tale is that you can be the toast of the town one day and toast the next day. One slip, one wrong word, or in Phelp's case a wrong photo and you burn faster than the Hindenburg.
The second tale is that maybe, just maybe, we're seeing what I never thought I'd see and that's the wipe out (at least momentarily) of the double standard in how certain real or perceived bad behaving celebrities are treated. That is black bad behaving stars are reviled, trashed, pounded, hammered mercilessly, and race and character baited while white bad behaving stars get moans, regrets, apologies, hand ringing and endless excuses made for their behavior.
The final tale is that we put guys like Phelps on Olympian pedestals, turn them into Demi-gods, slavishly fawn over them, and then when the inevitable happens and they act like humans, we scratch our heads in puzzlement and flagellate ourselves for being so dumb to glorify them. Do you think we or Phelps will learn anything from the three tales?
With respect to your first tale, I absolutely agree that you can be "the toast of the town one day and toast the next," but I would add that it's entirely possible to again be the toast of the town by day three. Worth noting here is that Phelps wasn't sacked by all his sponsors; in fact, many Americans and much of the mainstream media think this is all rather silly.
Next, I think you have something with respect to your second tale. Take OJ Simpson. Sure, he likely murdered two people, but Jeffrey Dahmer, for instance, killed way more than two people. OJ was immediately and forever castigated, despite being found innocent in criminal court. Dahmer, meanwhile, became a celebrity. But OJ penetrated white society and then probably killed two of its own. However, blacks too can make comebacks. Look at Ray Lewis, who might have been an accessory to a pair of murders a few years back. Or Al Sharpton, who perpetuated the Tawana Brawley hoax, only to run for president and be a frequent contributor to Fox News.
Finally, your third tale is why I barely watch the Olympics. Why NBC has to make all Olympians - well, at least the ones competing in individual sports - out to be scholars, Mother Theresa-types, and virgins is beyond me. They're great athletes who have worked very hard over a number of years to gain Olympian status - that in itself is enough to respect. No need to create cover stories and propagandize them.
Good post.