More Videos
- Weis' Deal Likely Won't Change Big Money Contracts
- Time Lapse World Series Is A Great Play
- Boise State Stock Plan: An Early Success
- Dollar Signs Seen In Young "Buck" Jennings
- Iverson Wasn't A Popular "Answer"
- My Top 10 Marketing Ideas For Winless Nets
- Airlines Add 'Super Bowl' Tax
- Chicken Wing Finder Makes Debut
- Michelle Wie Wins, Now What?
- TV Series Inks Unique Deal For Fight
RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- Why Amazon Rules Retail
- Wave of Debt Payments Facing US Government
- China Eastern to Complete Shanghai Air Buy by End '09
- JAL Slides to Record Low on Bankruptcy Jitters
- Prepare For Large Decline In Stocks, Next Year?
- Gold Will Collapse Like Oil Did in 2008: Charts
- The Social Media Gaming Threat
- Paul: Audit the Fed
- Nielsen Ratings Coming to Video Games
- Can Murdoch Help Bing Challenge Google and Shift the Content Equation?
- HP's Mark Hurd
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- 9 Stocks That Play Rising Water Costs: Strategists
- Weis' Deal Likely Won't Change Big Money Contracts
- Gold Prices Can Double in 3 Years: Portfolio Manager
- Nov. 23: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Help Wanted—Please Run $4 Billion University
- Apple Comes to AT&T's Rescue
- Strong Banks, Weak Credit: Treasury Rethinks TARP
- How Many US Consumers Will Shop this Weekend?
- Tuesday's Heavy Dose of Data to Dictate 'Risk' Behavior
- World's Largest Share Issue Priced at Deep Discount
- Obama says Boosting US Jobs is Top Priority
- Playboy to Outsource Most Magazine Operations: Report
- Why the Dollar Will Likely Stay Weak for Some Time
- EU Drops Proceedings Against Qualcomm
- Appeals Court Denies Microsoft's Alcatel Petition
Sports Biz
Text Size 
We are a world that likes to build people up and then is ready to tear them down.
When athletes are torn down because of a mistake in their personal life, we only forget thanks to their sporting excellence.
 |
Source: News of the World Michael Phelps inhales from a bong |
And with that, we come to Olympian Michael Phelps, who admitted to smoking pot after News Of The World published a photo of him with a bong in hand.
The positive?
He got pushed off the front page of the sports section due to a tremendous Super Bowl and a five-setter in the Australian Open final between Federer and Nadal.
His biggest problem? Phelps can't do anything of substance in the pool until 2012. He's not allowed to redeem himself in the traditional way athletes have -- in sport excellence.
Sure we, and his sponsors for that matter, were all able to forget the last time Phelps got in trouble -- three months after Athens when he was nailed for a DUI.
The reason for this is because, even with six gold medals, he simply fell off the map like all Olympians do in non-Olympic years. His sponsors didn't need to start activating until a year before Beijing.
But with Phelps' greatness in Beijing -- and the record of eight golds -- now means that his contracts with sponsors are too big for them not to use him as a transcendent star.
Speedo, whose contract with Phelps runs through 2009, will have to use him in 2010 and 2011 in order to make sense of the price they'll be asked to pay for renewal.
Visa [V
Loading...
()
] can't afford to sit out a year until the bud buzz dies down.
PureSport, an upstart sports drink, which recently signed Phelps, also can't wait until the negative energy is over. They have to sell drinks now in order to begin the tremendous uphill climb against the powerhouse that is Pepsi [PEP
Loading...
()
] (Gatorade) and Coca-Cola [KO
Loading...
()
] (PowerADE and Vitaminwater).
I'd be surprised if any of Phelps' sponsors dumped him because of this transgression. For their part, Speedo said Sunday, in a statement that "Phelps is a valued member of the Speedo team and a great champion."
But that doesn't mean Phelps hasn't hurt himself.
As if what is happening in corporate America isn't enough, those willing to pay for a Phelps speech or an appearance can now take at least $25,000 off the asking price from last week.
In his apology on Sunday, Phelps mentioned his age as a possible reason for his mistake. He was actually too young last time -- as his DUI came before he was even of legal drinking age.
When he was pulled over, Phelps reportedly told the cop he was "just scared because I have a lot to lose."
Somehow I think he lost more in potential income this time around.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes