New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper were both in the news this week for very different reasons, but one thing was exactly the same in the sense that each had situations arise after something was posted on the Internet.
Brees was outed as a "bad tipper" on a gossip website after someone obtained a check from a restaurant with his signature leaving three dollars on a $77 check, but later it was revealed that it was on a take-out order and ended up being the complete opposite of what was shown. Brees noticed reports about it later on and took the situation on himself, writing that it was indeed for a take-out order and that he would have generously tipped if he sat down with the waitress.
Brees spent last offseason dealing with a contract issue and now that he is handsomely paid, people clearly were waiting to jump on him after the check popped up. The main point of this story is that before the rise of the Internet, sports blogs and Twitter, this would never be something that Brees would have to deal with and something people wouldn't even know about. It partially is due to the slow news cycle between the draft and the preseason, but with training camp going on clearly people have run out of ideas.
The fact that Brees had to defend himself for this story is too bad, because he was made to look like a cheap tipper so the story seemed more salacious, but afterwards he actually did something that most people do not do. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and habits on tipping, but having previously worked at a restaurant and at one point being a counterman who handled the take-out orders, one can assure you that the majority of people do not tip the take-out dude. Point being, Brees was made to look like the villain and the way the Twitter culture is these days, it blew up way farther than it ever should have.
The two stories here are separate because the Riley Cooper situation is much worse and completely deplorable and awful, but at the same time, it was also affected by the Internet. What Cooper did was shameful and horrible and he deserves to be suspended or fined by the NFL (the fact that he is not is ridiculous, especially with how Goodell says he dishes out punishments), but if it was years ago, it would have been contained in that one moment and not a national story. This isn't to say what he did and the fact that he was caught on the Internet means he deserves some sympathy for anything, but just pointing out that it went as far as it did because of the medium itself.
Athletes are looked at as celebrities and in the current American-Reality TV-Twitter-Attention Span-Scandal culture and due to that they are treated the same way as some tabloids treat celebrities and with the Internet and Twitter rising even more, players have to be careful about what they do and what they write or post on the Internet.
