What is it that makes a champion?

Lately, there has been focus on the fall of champions. Kobe Bryant, for instance, has fallen since being accused of sexual misconduct with a woman that is not his wife. Is he still a champion?

What about those players who have changed teams, just to win the championship in their respective sports? Karl Malone did just that over the summer, he switched from the Utah Jazz to the Los Angeles Lakers solely because of the want of a championship ring.

Doesn’t Malone realize that just because a team is good for a couple of years, does not mean it will be good all the time? Look at the St. Louis Rams. They won a hard fought Super Bowl and the next year they didn’t perform as well as the year before.

One thing about champions, true champions, is that they are people who won’t let a loss get to them.

If you lose one game, it doesn’t mean it is the end of the world. Some players will take it out on themselves if they lose a game.

Is a champion someone who wins every game? No. A champion in my opinion is someone who will take the losses along with the wins. What about when they fall from grace, would they still be champions? It depends on what a person considers a champion to be.

It has been brought to my attention lately that Americans seem to hold the wrong people in the highest respect.

What do you mean, Mr. Sports Editor? I mean we hold up the people who have fallen down, especially if they hit bottom hard. These people pick themselves up and make something of themselves. These could be ex-drug addicts, ex-gamblers, ex-whatever.

My point is that after they turn their lives around and become something that they weren’t before, people love them. Is someone like me, who has never done drugs or drank alcohol or anything that would make me fall from grace, any less of a champion than they are? I don’t think so. The only difference between that person and myself is they came back, and I was always the same.

I don’t consider these people champions. A champion to me is someone who will stick with one team, no matter what kind of season they are having, or won’t change teams because they want to win a championship. A champion is someone who sticks to his principles, someone who never waivers from what he believes in, even in the toughest of storms.