By Brad Locke
January 21, 2005

(AgapePress) - There is no "I" in team, but as Leon has reminded us, there's no "we," either. But there is a "me" (and much to David Wells' delight, there is also an "eat").

Leon, of beer commercial fame, hyperbolically epitomizes our current superstar athletes. Even Randy Moss isn't that arrogant and ingrown -- I don't think -- but as with all good humor, there is an underlying truth present in the Leon character: individuality is the god of many an athlete.

The all-time No. 1 topic that gets sports pundits worked up is the "selfish athlete" -- the guy who seeks personal gain at the expense of the team, who believes he's entitled to that extra million or two, who can't fathom not getting everything he desires. Moss and his ilk are such easy targets because, I suspect, their critics are never given to immature or self-indulgent acts themselves. Goodness, that would be hypocritical.

I've grown quite tired of hearing, reading, and writing about selfish athletes, because there is really nothing new to say about them. I think something can be learned, however, from not only these athletes' behavior, but from how people react to them.

The most common reaction is righteous indignation. You see it from liberals and conservatives, blacks and whites, Hollywood and normal Americans. They'll all say -- rightly -- that no player is bigger than the team, that you must sacrifice at least some personal glory to win, that nobody likes a showboat. They point to teams like the Patriots, who have won with guys most teams would have put on the practice squad, or the Pistons, who won because even the stars didn't mind sharing the spotlight. That is what must be lauded and emulated, they all say. Not this individualism. Be creative within the system of rules and common decency.

Well, some may not go so far to stress the last point (I'm thinking Hollywood here). A lot would, though, because they know creativity in its highest form is governed by God-ordained laws and boundaries. These people also see how selfishness can destroy lives and upset societal balance. This is where the great hypocrisy occurs, because so many who condemn selfishness on the sports field turn around and worship it in another arena. How many people were disgusted by the Terrell Owens/Nicollette Sheridan skit -- in which, you'll recall, T.O. decides to skip the game for something else -- but then the next Sunday tuned in to "Desperate Housewives"? We are a country that admonishes others' selfishness while pressing for personal liberation from any set of moral standards.

America has always valued individualism. I suppose it may have manifested itself in a healthier form a couple of centuries ago, but now it means that you must "believe in yourself." That message, which subverts Christ's teachings, is all over kids' shows. It's the most dearly held value in today's world.

So why is the world so hard on Moss and Owens and Rasheed Wallace and Barry Bonds, et al.? Is it because these men make the world all too aware of its own decadence? Is it because they make the world aware that all sin, all evil, is driven by one mother sin -- selfishness (see James 3:16)? Is it too uncomfortable for that TV broadcaster or columnist to consider that, if put in the position of a star athlete, he might behave the same way?

I think we are so sensitive to others' selfishness because we know the kind of power it can wield over us. A selfish athlete reminds us of ourselves, but since his transgressions are public, and ours usually are not, we prop ourselves up morally on the swelled head of this miscreant.

I'm not saying we should give selfish athletes a pass. I simply think we should also focus on the larger problems that lead to such behavior -- broken homes, poverty, the exiling of God from public arenas. We wonder why these athletes won't change without considering what encouraged their behavior in the first place.

It should be noted that if you divide the word "teammate" into its root words, each is an anagram of the other. As a team cannot win when the players are playing for themselves instead of each other, we can't expect our society to collectively mature when criticism is lacking a consistent moral context and a resolution. Until we do that, Leon will never retire.