Conor McGregor, the Latest Victim of Soulless Rage-Bait

In 1993, Nike aired its infamous “I am not a role model” ad featuring the
always controversial Charles Barkley.  Within the ad, Barkley, points out that his profession is playing basketball not a role modeling for kids or surrogate parenting.

Then as now, we often ascribe greater ideals to individuals in order to have a physical manifestation of the values we look to project.  In athletics, its typically the rags to riches story of a kid who comes from nothing, claws his way to national/international prominence on the back of being adept at his/her chosen sport.  Michael Jordan getting cut from his high school basketball team to become arguably the greatest basketball player alive is a common example to highlight how far one can get through hard work.

What gets lost in the anecdote is the crushing microscope these stars are under.  Also lost, they are fallible humans.  For Jordan, media scrutiny about his gambling and personal life were major factors in his initial retirement to pursue baseball.  This was even before social media. 

Now, clickbait journalism dominates.  Everyone falls over themselves to get the juiciest “hot-take” in order to drive clicks, traffic, and revenue.  The greatest casualties in the clickbait age are the ability to forgive and proportionality.

So, about Conor McGregor.  The Ultimate Fighting Championship mega-star who landed himself in hot water in Miami. 

Did McGregor hit the fan directly? No.

Did McGregor injure the fan? No.

Was anyone injured? No.

Did security immediately break it up? Yes.

Was Conor arrested? Yes.

Will the fan likely receive a settlement? Yes.

Does this have ANYTHING to do with his abilities as a cage fighter or his legacy? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

A hyper-masculine 29-year-old who grew up fighting, chose it as a career, and, less than 8 years ago was cleaning toilets in addition to relying on government assistance, punched and stepped on the phone of a fan. 

That’s all that happened.