Our society is one that has historically revered its athletes, treating them with admiration and respect. These individuals blessed with both natural talent and honest work ethic are generally considered to be the cream of the crop, the best of the best, the examples which we should all seek to follow. Sports stars have come to be treated as celebrities, the games they play and the competitions in which they partake comparable to the films, television shows and albums of actors and musicians.

This celebrity-like aura around our athletes has generally been a positive thing for both the public and sports stars themselves. In recent years, however, the tide has begun to turn. The paparazzi have become increasingly ruthless and the news much more scandal-fueled. And as these developments have meant lots of embarrassment for actors, musicians and writers, they have led to difficult predicaments for athletes as well. It seems like today, more than ever, athletes are being exposed for their bad behavior.

It is doubtful that our sports heroes began to fall off of the path of the moral compass in recent times – it is more likely that we are simply much more likely now to find out about their discretion. We remain interested in watching them play, investing in NFL Sunday Ticket subscriptions and looking on through our high definition televisions as they battle it out. Nowadays, however, we also tune in to the gossip shows on satellite TV to find out what’s going on in their personal lives. A combination of the increased attention to athletes with star-like status and a possible hike in bad behavior on the part of the sports stars themselves has created what seems to be a boom of exposed discretions.