Nita's Blog

Many yards for Wie to go to compete with the Mick, pictured here at the Byron '07. (Photo by Nita)

     A recent blog starting my thinking about teenagers whose financial futures interfered with their more immediate goals of making a team and/or living up to the competition in their given sports.

     Refer to the Michelle Wie blog to catch up to the discussion Scotty ignited.

     Let’s see whether Wie will ever qualify in a PGA event. Let’s see whether she will ever win an LPGA event—while other young golfers are zooming by her. They’re not matching her endorsement money which could become a problem for her sponsors.

     I’m pondering Scotty’s reference to a “modicum” of jealousy on my part.

I’m turning this question to him..  can I, as a journalist earning a full-time paycheck for 20 years, make a comment about a failing female athlete without being jealous? ?

     I called out Wie (in a previous blog) as one of the teenagers in the money-grab mode, instead of the “win something” mode. Had I mentioned Harold Minor’s failure to match the “Baby Jordan” label, would that have been my jealousy?

     Come on…

     Another easy-to-understand example of a teenager in the money-grab mode is Maurice Clarett.

     How concerned was he about breaking into the NFL early from Ohio State and breaking the bank with some team that he dropped the ball on everything else?

     A fatal mistake for the career of a running back.

     (His saga was so long he probably reached twenty during the debacle.) 

     The Wie family, whoever is running career-related issues, and Clarett’s mom, who stood beside him at the press conference to announce the lawsuit against the NFL, don’t have a clue of how to do it right.

     Consider the evidence, my just my words.

     Teenagers and their sports money will soon go separate ways.

     Did Clarett ever get paid by the way?

     Join in, please. And I bet Scotty has more to say.

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