It can be lonely at the top, so the adage goes. That can be easy to forget or lose sight of totally for a number of reasons, and it becomes doubly unclear when introduced into the artifice of professional sports. On the one hand, riches beyond your wildest childhood dreams. On the other, a career that pushes your body to its limits before it gives out, a demanding mix of responsibilities to stakeholders ranging from the deeply personal to the totally anonymous, and that vague thing called “legacy” we all try to manage, knowingly or otherwise.
Yet, underneath the money, below the commercialization, past the layers of imaging and spin, sport still embodies the core values that give it an aura that draws us all in.