Enough is Enough! It’s Time for Michael Phelps to be Relevant Again

“I am not a role model”, the famous Charles Barkley line bellowed in his 1993 Nike commercial had a much greater impact on the American sports culture than just a tagline in a sneaker ad.

To this day, Barkley’s statement sparks debate over what an athlete’s responsibility is to their fans and public.

Are athletes, in fact, role models and to be held to higher standards than everyone else? Or are they regular people – whose choice of career just happens to make them famous, and puts unfair scrutiny and media attention on them?

In the eyes of fans, especially parents who raise children that look up to and sometimes idolize athletes, this is really a personal choice and is determined by each individual. Basically, it’s up to each fan to decide the level of importance a famous athlete will have on their lives.

But when it comes to sponsors, it’s a whole different ballgame (pun intended).

When an athlete accepts money (usually in the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars) from a company to promote and represent a product or brand, that athlete becomes a role model and will be held to that standard.

An athlete is chosen is serve as a product endorser by a company because of their image and how they carry themselves in the public. So when an athlete signs a contract, agreeing to be the face of a product or brand, that athlete should be, and is, held to a higher standard.

Michael Phelps suffered a serious blow to his image and sponsorship appeal in early February when a photo surfaced of the world-class swimmer having too good of a time at a college party.

Phelps’ media image, of course, was of a healthy and strong athlete, possessing an incredible work ethic and a historic record of athletic success – a sponsor’s dream.

But much of that cachet was understandably lost when that now famous photo of Phelps using a marijuana pipe hit every media outlet at warp speed.

Phelps lost some endorsement deals, most notably Kellogg’s, was suspended by USA Swimming for three months and will forever suffer a taint to his image.

But less than six months after the media storm, Phelps has signed with his first new sponsor since the incident.

Phelps and H2O Audio, a company that manufactures waterproof headphones and accessories, agreed earlier this week to a multiyear partnership to feature the 14-time gold medal winner in an ad campaign beginning this summer (the company also has Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin and surfer Laird Hamilton as endorsers).

Although it may be just a tad early to break Phelps back into the world of celebrity sports endorsing, it’s a great move by H2O Audio to align its products with Phelps and make him the face of the company.

Allowing himself to be photographed holding a marijuana pipe was a lack of judgment of epic proportions. It’s still mind-boggling to most people how Phelps, and his management team, could let something like that happen.

Not that what Phelps did was so terrible – he wasn’t accused of rape or convicted of helping to cover up a double murder. Phelps was caught doing something, I’d guess, more than 80% of people in his age group have done at a college party. He was just being a dumb and irresponsible kid.

The difference, however, was Phelps wasn’t just any dumb kid. He’s one of the greatest and most accomplished American athletes ever.

But being only 23-years old, Phelps has got a lifetime left to work at promoting swimming and any other athletic endeavors he chooses. The potential of his impact on the American sports scene is too great to just throw Phelps away and forgot about him.

Of course, now Phelps will be (and should be) regarded as having two strikes against him (for the bong photo and a DUI arrest in 2004). So his public image is much more fragile and susceptible to damage then it otherwise would be.

But, for now, he’s done his penance. Phelps faced the music and answered the media and his fans for his “crime”. So it’s time to move on and allow Phelps to, finally, grow up.

Hopefully, signing with H2O Audio is the first step in Phelps’ maturity.