By Steve Rushin
Sports Illustrated
Issue Date: August 9, 2004, page 21
PETE ROSE is my role model. Mike Tyson is
my mentor. O.J. Simpson is my spiritual guide. In fact, everything I ever
needed to know - about how to live and whom to trust and how to treat people
- I learned not in kindergarten but from Kobe. "Anyone can point to
Ray Lewis, Rae Carruth or Mark Gastineau and say, 'What a knucklehead'," says
Mike Paul, a public-relations professional who specializes in crisis-and
reputation-management. "But why not look at these guys and ask, 'Where am I
falling short, and what can I learn from them?' "
And so your child's most important preschool instructor may well be Janet
Jackson. "We teach kids even before kindergarten that no true apology has an
if or but in it," says Paul, counselor and confidant to
countless professional athletes through his New York City-based firm, MGP &
Associates PR. "After the Super Bowl, Janet Jackson said, in essence, 'I'm
sorry, but I didn't do anything wrong.' Justin Timberlake said, 'I
apologize if I offended anyone.' They're not taking
responsibility."
Paul is not wanting for potential clients this week, what with the
Hindenburging reputations of LaSalle basketball, Miami football and NBA
mercenary Carlos Boozer. Your sports section, in a strange way, is a daily
self-help manual, the only guru you will ever need. Kobe rhymes
with Obi-Wan Kenobi. The lone-wolf Lakers guard teaches us that the
only thing more dangerous than running with the wrong crowd is running with no
crowd. "I'll hear many times, when I ask an athlete who he has surrounded
myself with, that it's a bunch of yes-men," said Paul. "But it's worse to
hear the excuse - the lie - that 'I'm a loner, I like being by myself, that's my
personality.' People who say that have another agenda, which is to maintain a
side that they don't want anyone to know about."
That's why Shane Spencer is my swami. The Mets outfielder was arrested last
week after allegedly driving 96 mph in the middle of the night on I-95 in
Florida. Since he was charged with misdemeanor driving under the
influence, I've fallen under his influence. And what he has taught me
is this: "Sign up for limo service!" said Paul. "I've given this talk
so many times. Some of these guys never had a car growing up. Now they
can have any car they want, they don't want anyone else to drive it. I've told
athletes in the NFL and NBA, 'Buy a limo company. Give your teammates the number
on a card, tell your friends to use your cars when they drink. With a
limo, you're still styling. And you don't have to bother with parking.' "
The path to enlightenment was paved by Jayson Williams who alas, did use a
limo service. "If I were his p.r. person," Paul says of the ex-Net who was found
not guilty of aggravated manslaughter in the shooting death of a chauffer,"I'd
tell him, 'Some things are just facts: Your carelessness with guns, the (cocky)
way you talk - these are not just perceptions, they're facts.' You have to have
humility, and he's not there yet."
As Williams will discover, the court of law is distinct from the court of
public opinion. "If your in trouble," says Paul, "you're gonna get advice from
your lawyer and that's the last thing you want to follow in building a
reputation. O.J. Simpson listened to his lawyer and stayed out of jail,
but what happened? His lawyer's reputation became 10 times greater than it was
before the trial. And O.J.'s became 10 times worse."
When George O'Leary was discovered to have lied on the resume that got him
hired, then fired, as football coach at Notre Dame, his younger brother phoned
Paul for pro bono advice. Paul suggested that O'Leary tell the truth - that he
tell students in hundreds of schools the perils of lying on a resume. Says Paul,
"He'd (have been) seen as a savior."
Confession is good for the soul and for the stomach. "I had a CFO of
a company break down and start crying over lunch," says Paul. "He said, 'I can't
tell this lie anymore, I have ulcers, my family is thinking of leaving me, and I
can't deal with this any longer: I've been cooking the books for years.' "
*
*
*
What does Shane Spencer's DUI arrest teach us?
"Sign up for limo service!"
says reputation-management expert Mike
Paul.
*
*
*
That's why Bobby Knight is my life coach. "It's not too late for him or for
anybody to say, 'I've done some wrong things in my life, and I want to come
clean,' " says Paul. "Look at Lyle Alzado. He came clean at the end, said
he'd done some crazy things to his body."
Forget the Andre Agassi adage,"Image is everything." As Paul tells athletes,
"An image is fake, but a reputation is built. If you want to build a
positive reputation, you don't need spin, you need bricks. And those bricks
better include humility, truth, transparency and accountability, which will then
build character and integrity. Those ultimately, equal a positive long-term
reputation."
And so Ricky Williams is my role model. He'd rather give up the Miami
Dolphins than give up marijuana? "He should want to walk down the
street and hear, 'That's the guy who used to play for Miami,' not 'There's a
druggie or doper or chicken,' " says Paul. "And he's going to hear a lot
of that until he comes to truth with himself and says. 'I've made some big
mistakes.' "
All of which is to say this: Those who claim "The sports section is my Bible"
may be more accurate than they realize. In both, the truth really will set you
free.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Steve Rushin pens the weekly Air
and Space column in the magazine.
