When your heroes betray you.

[G✇JI☈A]

With Lance Armstrong publicly admitted he is one of the biggest cheaters in the history of professional sport. I'm betting all his fans are feeling pretty betrayed at the moment.

So when has someone you loved and idolized did something that hurt you greatly.

I'm getting it out the way early: Chris Benoit. I loved watching him wrestle. He was one of the best I had seen. Had a great intensity that made pro wrestling look like the real thing. But when he murdered his wife and child. Not only did it destroy his legacy, but my love for pro-wrestling began to fade. I might still catch every now and again. But it has never been the same.

[A Platypus Rave]

Aug 23, 2012 21:32:33 GMT -5 G✇JI☈A said:

I'm getting it out the way early: Chris Benoit. I loved watching him wrestle. He was one of the best I had seen. Had a great intensity that made pro wrestling look like the real thing. But when he murdered his wife and child. Not only did it destroy his legacy, but my love for pro-wrestling began to fade. I might still catch every now and again. But it has never been the same.

That's pretty much the biggest one right there.

[darthalexander]

For me personally, the biggest betrayals I ever got were from my family. Sadly if you were to ask my family this question they'd all say the same thing.

One of the worst experiences I ever had was with my grandparents when I stayed with them during a two week period in the summer when I was about 12. Up until that time I worshipped the ground they walked on and my grandfather was especially quite important to me. I felt he was the greatest man ever. Things happened during that two week period that completely changed me feelings for him. I never looked at him the same way again and it's easily one of my most painful memories. I don't mean to sound like a sad sack here but that's the long and short of it. I won't get into it beyond this because I don't need to go down that road again (I wasn't molested, it has nothing to do with that kind of stuff).

On a "lighter note" I've always wondered what baseball fans must feel like now considering all the scandals about doping that have come out. I don't mean to knock baseball at all, but it must be hard to watch a game and see something great happen (like a new record being made, etc) and wonder if it is legit or not. If I were a kid who grew up on baseball and heard some of this stuff I'd be so discouraged.

I also hate it when you have someone who inspires you turn out to be a pretty rotten person.

[H-Virus]

If fictional heroes count: Spider-Man. He was one of my favorite superheroes of all time. Then One More Day came and spat in the face of everything he was supposed to stand for, killed my interest in him, and I haven't picked up another Spider-Man comic since.


Real Life example: When I was about 8 years old I was friends with a kid who lived across the street from me. He had an older brother who was 16. He was one of those guys who didn't mind hanging out with his little brother and friends, and whenever I went over to their house he would teach us how to play video games, play outside in the snow with us, even drive us around in his car and buy us ice cream and whatnot. He was probably the coolest guy I knew back then.

My family moved to a new city when I was 10, and when I came back to visit a few years later, I found out he'd gotten arrested for beating and attempting to rape a girl at a party one night. Haven't seen or spoken to him since, and honestly don't care if I ever do.

[dlg3000]

Aug 23, 2012 21:32:33 GMT -5 G✇JI☈A said:

With Lance Armstrong publicly admitted he is one of the biggest cheaters in the history of professional sport. I'm betting all his fans are feeling pretty betrayed at the moment.

So when has someone you loved and idolized did something that hurt you greatly.

I'm getting it out the way early: Chris Benoit. I loved watching him wrestle. He was one of the best I had seen. Had a great intensity that made pro wrestling look like the real thing. But when he murdered his wife and child. Not only did it destroy his legacy, but my love for pro-wrestling began to fade. I might still catch every now and again. But it has never been the same.

I was thinking pro wrestling as I was reading your post. I'm sure a lot of people felt that way about OJ many years ago.

[stinger]

I never liked baseball much, but I got into it with the home run race in 1998. I became a huge Sammy Sosa fan, my girlfriend (now wife) got me an autographed magazine for my birthday and I was so proud of it. Then I found out he did steroids and it pretty much killed any interest in baseball I had.

[triplethreatmark]

When I was a kid, I was devastated that the NHL locked out the whole season for the 04-05 season. I felt like the whole league (owners, players, league execs, etc) let diehard fans like me down. I didn't get back to watching hockey religiously again for 4 years after the lockout.

Now I don't look up to any player or the league as a whole as I learned my lesson back then but it infuriates me to no end that they're on the verge of doing it again.

[Deleted]

Chris Benoit. Hometown hero. Great intensity and work ethic and craftsmanship that I use on my life thanks to him. Always admired his life story. Heard many great things about him (from some actual locals who grew up with him or former neighbors.) Still weird's me out this day.

[Cela]

Frikkin Benoit.

[sludgehammer]

Hulk Hogan

[celticjobber]

Benoit for sure.

Probably Ultimate Warrior with his homophobic comments, and when I found out how he refused to see a kid who was dying of cancer who was flown in by the Make A Wish foundation to a WWF show in the 90's specifically to meet him (as told in Bret Hart's book). And also with how it turns out that Warrior would usually tell kids to "f*** off!" when they asked for his autograph.

[xCompackx]

Chris Benoit affected me on a more personal level than I thought it would when I first heard what he did. From all the stuff I've read/heard about him, he was a pretty quiet guy who cared about his family and as someone who's pretty much the same way I get so uncomfortable thinking about it. I wouldn't say that I was his biggest fan, but I don't think I've watched a Benoit match since 2007 and I try to keep it that way.

[daime]

I have to say Hulk Hogan back in 1996 with The nWo when I was still a mark.

With time (and the internet) I was able to forgive and forget.

[harrismls]

Ryan Giggs. By far the best football player Wales has produced, he was pretty much thought of as the perfect professional and a great role model for years.
Then it turned out he'd slept with his brother's wife and a bunch of other women while married. Then he took out a court order to prevent newspapers publishing this, and threatened to sue twitter users who posted about it.

[Totorob101]

Chris Benoit and Ryan Giggs as mentioned above. Benoit was my favorite guy to see in the ring but iv not seen a single match of his since that terrible day and i doubt i ever will. Giggs....while not as terrible as what Benoit did was very disappointing, he was a guy that seemed to be the perfect role model, dedicated and hard working and it turns out he cheated on his wife for years and tried to hide from his sins. Lost a huge lot of respect for the guy.

[bob]

Getting the obvious out of the way Chris Benoit. The others for me have to be Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire who destroyed the love of baseball I had as a kid. And my dad, I'd rather not get into that.

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

Aug 23, 2012 22:29:50 GMT -5 darthalexander said:

On a "lighter note" I've always wondered what baseball fans must feel like now considering all the scandals about doping that have come out. I don't mean to knock baseball at all, but it must be hard to watch a game and see something great happen (like a new record being made, etc) and wonder if it is legit or not. If I were a kid who grew up on baseball and heard some of this stuff I'd be so discouraged.

It became a part of baseball. It was more than a few rogue players, it was the vast majority. So the playing field was pretty even. And cheating has happened in baseball a lot, The Shot Heard Round the World was an example of cheating (Giants stealing signs), yet MLB loves it. Baseball has also had other times where it wasn't all roses, unlike what the Hall of Fame and some writers would have you believe. They refer to the Segregation Era as the good old days of baseball. Really, the Steroid Era is worse than not allowing Blacks and Latinos to play? Major League Baseball could have taken a huge stand in America, long before Jackie Robinson.

And really, you're telling me Anabolic steroids, and other perfomance enhancing drugs in baseball didn't happen before the 1980's?

[YAKMAN is ICHIBAN]

I always tried to emulate Benoit (with a healthy dash of Christian's moveset) when I backyard wrestled. In a creative writing class I wrote a story about having a match with him. So yeah, that.

[J.O.B. Squad]

Only thing that comes close is I use to really like a band and I saw them live once and afterwards I met their singer who use to be in a previous band and I told him that I love his previous stuff as well as his new stuff and he just quit talking and walked away and that is when I quit being a fan,Which looking back is no big deal since the band is nothing but horrible feedback live.

[Deleted]

If you grew up as a wrestling fan any time in the '80s, the stories you've heard means this happens a LOT.