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Right, but the only reason the athlete is a "brand risk" to begin with is because people care about what they do off the field. I recognize that people do care about this, but my argument is that people shouldn't care about this. Nobody cares about or wants to know about their plumber's politics because it's irrelevant; they should take the same approach with athletes.
That's fair, but plumbers aren't also public figures (usually). Part of being a pro athlete is becoming and being a public figure, and that's part of why they are paid so well and receive sponsorship offers, etc. Without the eyeballs of the masses being good at a sport would be far less valuable, and if athletes help people get invested in the team through their brand as a public figure they become more valuable and teams have more incentive to use them on the field (of course they have to be good as a prerequisite).
I'd say that a roster player in a sport like American football, where there are ~50 people on the team, can get away with not being a public figure. But that means they can't enjoy the benefits of being a public figure and have to keep a low profile, because they're a roster player and can easily be replaced.
Another factor that the sports media sometimes talks about is locker room dynamics. It's unclear to me if this is a real thing, ideally pro athletes would be consummate professionals and only care about their colleagues' athletic performance. But if it is a real thing, I'd imagine that sometimes players who rock the boat publicly may also do so privately. When it comes to the OP's example it seems unlikely that this is relevant, but maybe it's relevant more generally.
Are you suggesting that 0% of a player's off-the-field conduct should be considered in decisions about whether to play them (criminal misconduct aside)? In principle I agree, coaches who want to win a game should play their best-performing players. But coaches will bench good players for not attending weekly practices, so should that not count? Teams could make internal, social agreements about individual player conduct that could be broken, should that not be considered? I'd be comfortable saying that 2-5% of a pro player's social conduct can and should be a factor in their employment (with wiggle room for different sports and for stars/franchise players).
I'm saying people shouldn't expect more out of public figures than what they're being paid to do. A good athlete doesn't need to be smart or a morally good person, those attributes are unrelated to their job. Same with actors, musicians, artists, and the like. None of the bad things Mike Tyson has done could diminish his quality as a boxer. None of the bad things Roman Polanski has done could diminish the quality of his films.
Yes, though by "off the field" I mean things not directly related to their ability to win or perform well. So missing practice or causing problems in the locker room would count as "on the field" since this clearly has an impact on their performance or the team's performance.
And even criminal misconduct I would say should not factor into such decisions, except to the extent that the consequences of such misconduct impact the player's ability to do their job (e.g. if they're in jail then obviously they can't play). The justice system should adjudicate guilt and punishment, not sports teams.
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