Marat Safin

Safin, who is contemplating retirement himself, is claiming that Agassi should not only give back his titles, but also all his money earned while playing tennis.  Safin’s adoring fans may agree with him, but I doubt most other people would.  After he tested positive in 1997, he lied to the ATP about it and was allowed to continue playing.  During his playing career he 60 titles which includes 8 Grand Slams.  That is quite a resume and his new book, with its admissions about drug use, throw all those titles into question.

Obviously the request to return all the money is a bit ridiculous, but perhaps Agassi should return his titles.  If anything, the ATP should be held responsible as well, after being negligent or even complicit in Agassi’s deception.  The ATP cannot exactly strip the titles either, because of their involvement in the whole situation.

I don’t think anyone will be returning any titles, and certainly not any money, but its interesting to think about how this would work.  In the Olympics, the gold medalist is stripped of her medal and the silver winner steps in.  In baseball, as we’ve seen, a strong union has allowed the players to not only keep their money and awards, but play without any serious repercussions.  Tennis?  With the ATP being complicit in the crime here, it is more likely that it will be treated like baseball than like the Olympics.

Safin: Agassi should relinquish titles – [ESPN]

The most interesting part of the book however, appears to be an admission that Agassi had problems with drug use.  He was not only using light drugs, but apparently serious ones like crystal meth.  Not that all drugs aren’t serious, but the use of crystal meth was shocking.  For a person like Agassi, baring his soul in this book is no surprise.  Agassi didn’t seem to worried about how it would affect his fans either:

“I was worried for a moment, but not for long. … I wore my heart on my sleeve and my emotions were always written on my face. I was actually excited about telling the world the whole story.”

I don’t judge Agassi for this and neither should you.  It can be very difficult to handle all the pressure and stress of being the best in your sport and Agassi always came across as a class act.  It’s not like he was using drugs to cheat or anything, like a lot of baseball players did in the 1990s and 2000s.  Although his fans may not be as obsessive as Marat Safin‘s seem to be, Agassi is still respected in the tennis world.  We can only hope that now, in his later years, he has found some peace and happiness.

Andre Agassi

Andre Agassi: I Used Crystal Meth – [People.com]

On the day of this incident, however, Safin would end up taking a tough loss in straight sets. His fans did not seem to care too much about that, however, as one person appeared to use a picture of Safin to cover his face. Its unclear whether this was done on purpose or not, but the shot does line up just perfectly so that it almost looks like Safin is actually sitting there. Except for the bright yellow sweater of course.

The question is, no matter how big a fan you are, would you try to make it look like you were your idol using a tacky method like this? Probably not, but it was also probably all in good fun. Real diehard fans do crazy things like these college football fans or these wild fans that tattoo their teams on themselves.

Either way that picture cracks me up. If you were going to cover your face with a magazine picture of one athlete, who would it be? (and we already know Lions fans, you would put a paper bag over your head, so that doesn’t count)

Hat Tip Image – [BustedRacquet]