Ever been asked the question, “What famous athlete would you most want to meet?” With a plethora of potential replies it’s hard to pick the perfect one. A Hall of Famer? A young rookie who may shed some light on how to break into the big leagues? A coach who has taught some of the greats in your favorite sport? Honestly, how do you select just the right one?

Well, if you’re Stephen A. Smith of ESPN fame, you can think fondly of all those who have graced your presence and then write up a list of those you still need to corner meet, publish said list and wait for the phone to ring. In his most recent musings in ESPN the Mag (cue chick voice who does the NASCAR Awards Banquet here…), Smith puts forth his most-wanted list which includes Jennifer Lopez (uh-huh), Oprah (uh-huh), Tiger Woods, Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams (whew, we get those), Mike Tyson (k), the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders (snicker), Dr. Phil (wha??? And he stole your job? We need tequila.) and Dale Earnhardt Jr., among others.

Not a bad list of super famous people, for sure. Our list of those we would like to meet would be very different however. Mainly because it would be blank. Why?

Because we don’t know their names.

We’d like to meet the baseball player who is so outrageously thankful to be fortunate enough to land a gig in the majors that he hugs each fan who recognizes him on the street, because his face is rarely on TV. We’d like to meet the basketball player who survived a brutal childhood and stayed focused on keeping clean, getting good grades in school and playing sound basketball…through four years of college.

We want to meet the NFL player who would sit down with us and talk about the play that most scares him, the play he most likes to execute, and how he would change the NFL so that every man, woman and child could afford to see a game live, just because we asked and he wasn’t in the middle of dinner.

We’d like to meet the NASCAR driver that recycles, has solar panels on his house and is investing in a wind farm. In our dream, he throws open the doors to his manse with delight because someone cares about seeing his ‘greener’ self. Lastly, we want to meet the hockey player that has spent time insuring that the youth who are playing the sport understand how to respect the opposition and not intentionally cause harm. (We love us some ice-dancing, but only when it’s about settling a score without causing catastrophic injury…teach the pups!)

Curious about who we don’t want meet? Anyone who thinks that they are too cool to talk to us because we aren’t famous.

In our storied little existence we’ve had the opportunity to meet athletes, entertainers and those who run the business side of sports and entertainment. Oh, and sports journalists, too. Even Stephen A. Smith, although we doubt he’d remember because we aren’t on the cover of FHM (Is that mag still in business?), nor do we host a TV talk show, and, most importantly, we aren’t mentioned in his list of famous people he’d most like to meet after having met sooooo many famous people already.

Smith says that “The beauty of being a sports journalist is that you get to meet a whole bunch of interesting people. Ya know, the folks your average Joe the Plumber never meets unless a member of the security detail misses an assignment, or a friend of a friend comes up with (Is that a euphemism for steals?) floor seats.” As if you must be at least two degrees from being able to afford a floor seat on your own dime because you’re not famous enough for Smith to know you.

There’s been lots of talk lately about athletes needing to protect themselves from those who seek to do them harm. A wall has been erected between celebrities and those who keep them employed (fans), and that is a real shame, on many levels. Certainly there are kooks out there, stalkers and the like, that would love to make a name for themselves by getting too close to those they ‘admire’. But, by and large, most fans just want to have a genuine interaction with people who have come into their lives via the many media outlets to which we have access. And we believe that most celebrities would enjoy a simple chat with another human being as long as the chat was engaging and not frightening.

Sadly we may have come too far down IDOL Avenue to turn back the clocks and all just harmonize. And it’s not just sad for the fans, it’s sad for the athletes too. We’ve placed them on a pedestal upon which most aren’t comfortable. Wouldn’t it be beautiful to go back to the days when athletes left the building through some loading dock tunnel and happily chatted with fans all the way to their car? (Notice the use of the word car as opposed to tricked out behemoth with ginormous glittering rims and blacked out windows.)

Gravity (economics) has a way of leveling the playing field. That said, we know brighter days will come. Our wish list is just that: may those who entertain us on the field of play fight the pull of excess so that they too can live a wonderful life socializing with whomever they may meet. And we don’t mean in the VIP room. It’s time to get back to humanity.

BTW, Stephen A., we’ve met Dale Earnhardt Jr. Great guy. And we’re not even sports journalists! Yay us!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 9:16 pm and is filed under Fantoo Blog Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.