The news broke in December 2011.
“Ryan Braun tests positive for performance enhancing drugs”
As fans, there is an assumption that we know him; that he wouldn’t do something like that. But when bad news breaks the first question is how much do we really know about him?
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Rob Hogans could be considered the typical student athlete at the Christian liberal arts university he attends. Except in March, Rob was featured on ESPN.
When introduced to people that becomes his identifier – he’s Rob, the guy who made ESPN.
While being defined as “that” guy is attractive and welcome, Rob just wants to be known as a basketball player. Someone who gets up each morning and is passionate about the sport he plays.
As his fellow students, how many of us can say we know Rob without his titles?
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David Giles, author of Illusions of Immortality: A Psychology of Fame and Celebrity, says different types of fame have been identified throughout history. Fame was defined as immortality, spiritual fame in the eyes of God, worldly fame in the eyes of the public and fame of the moment.
He says the defining characteristic of celebrity is that it is essentially a media production and it is used in the confines of the twentieth century (and now the twenty-first century).
Daniel Boorstin defines a celebrity as a person who is known for his well-knownness.
Similarly to television shows and movies like Glee and High School Musical, the “celebrity” status in students falls to the athletes. This particular Christian university is no exception.
In schools, celebrity status coincides with popularity. Authors Patricia and Peter Adler say, “In educational institutions, children develop a stratified social order determined by their interactions with peers, parents and other social elements. A child’s knowledge of social position is influenced by their conception of status, which may be defined as popularity, prestige, or ‘social honor.’”
Amelia understands the hierarchy established at the university. She knows the athletes. She’s a friend to some. She encourages others as a student leader.
She calls the baseball team, “the most intimidating looking. They are the ones who work in the quiet looking for no recognition. Yet, they become the ‘punks’ of campus.”
The basketball team, which Rob is a member of, is what Amelia considers “a group of easygoing guys who seem uncomfortable to be around.” They aren’t as open at first, but welcome interactions with people outside of their group.
Social psychologist Henri Tajfel is known for his work on the social identity theory. This theory claims that social groups are important sources of identity.
David Schneider in his analysis of Tajfel’s work says that, “Given the importance of various groups in everyday lives, it seems natural to categorize people in terms of their group memberships. We all belong to countless numbers of groups and categories.”
The men’s soccer team “sticks to themselves and avoids the community feel of the university.”
On the women’s side, the basketball team, according to Amelia, “is a bit manlier than the other girls on campus.” This presence may be more intimidating for other women students on campus.
When it comes to interactions with other students the softball players are at an advantage. Amelia says, “they’re not known as softball players.” Therefore, other students don’t see them as intimidating athletes.
She believes that the women’s soccer team “acts like they are better than everyone else.” The new soccer complex was built after the women had six seasons with records well over the 500 mark. They even had championships in the Mid Central College Conference in 2010 and 2011, a national championship from the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association in 2010 and a final four appearance in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ national tournament. The men’s soccer team, from 2007-2010, had an underwhelming record barely finishing around the 500 mark each season. It wasn’t until recently that the men have found their success on the field.
Like their group dynamic, Amelia bundled the men and women’s track teams together. “Constantly being in groups can be intimidating,” is how she described them.
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In order to know more about Ryan Braun we turn to Google. A simple search turns up 11,600,000 results. The first being his profile on Wikipedia.com.
Braun is 29 years old. He was born in Mission Hills, California.
He attended Granada Hills (California) High School before attending the University of Miami (Florida).
In 2005, the Milwaukee Brewers drafted him in the first round. He made his major league debut in 2007.
He’s been elected to five All-Star Game teams, won the 2007 National League Rookie of the Year Award and the 2011 National League Most Valuable Player Award.
His salary is $9,898,611.00 a year through 2015.
And he is overcoming the press as a result of testing positive on a drug test.
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In order to get to know more about Rob Hogans, Google isn’t really an option. A search turns up 1,410,000 results – not all of which are associated with the student. The first that is, however, is a dunk from one his high school games.
To get to know Rob, you must approach him and be his friend, an acquaintance that he smiles at in passing.
Rob is a junior accounting major. He wears the number three when he steps on the basketball court.
He grew up in Detroit and Farmington Hills, Michigan. He was a student at North Farmington High School.
His grandfather was the pastor of the church he grew up in and his father recently just opened his own church.
And he is welcoming the attention that stemmed from his 30-second appearance on ESPN.
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When it comes to popularity, the Adlers’ said, “the major factor in affecting boys’ popularity was athletic ability. It was so critical that individuals who were proficient in sport attained both peer recognition and upward recognition.”
The best athlete was also the most popular boy.
A third grader said, “Craig is sort of mean, but he’s really great at sports so he’s popular.”
Fighting whether formal fights or informal pushing, shoving, or roughhousing, is a means to establish a social order for the boys. More popular boys often dispense these physical actions of superiority, while the less popular boys are often the recipients.
Glee has a character that exemplifies this third-grader’s perspective. Noah “Puck” Puckerman tosses slushies in the faces of the students that sing in the glee club. He puts the student that is openly gay into the dumpster. He shoves students against lockers because they don’t fit into his group. He trapped a boy in a wheelchair in a port-o-potty.
But he’s one of a few stars on a losing football team. So the cheerleaders flock to him. Puck has a group of teammates that follow him around and begin slushie-ing students too. They help him throw people in the dumpsters. He also has the reputation of a manwhore because he’s willing to sleep with any woman that will let him, including the mothers of his classmates, and the girls flock to him.
Rob is nothing like Noah Puckerman.
When he stands in the cafeteria of his university, students surround him. When he walks into the library other students recognize his smile and the baseball cap that matches the colors of his outfit.
No one is afraid to approach him. It must be the smile and open posture. He’s not afraid to approach anyone either.
In fact, he more resembles Troy Bolton from High School Musical. Troy discovers that he has a pretty good singing voice, which prompts him to audition for the school’s musical alongside the “new” girl.
When they earn a callback and the rest of the high school discovers it an identity crisis occurs. The status quo had been broken.
Rob is the status quo breaker on his campus.
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Since the nineteenth century the word fan has been in constant use; fandom joined the show in the twentieth century. The fans and fandoms that are more readily accepted by culture are that of sports, film and music.
Thanks to the Internet, fans are measured differently. They aren’t just the people who show up and sit in the stands anymore. Now, they can like a Facebook page and send a message in 140 characters.
Ryan Braun has 16,460 Twitter followers; Rob only has 619, but 70 of them came after his dunk appeared on ESPN.
The dunk was featured on ESPN because Rob was able to send a tweet to a staff member.
“I thought he wouldn’t answer me back. I got a response immediately,” said Rob about his interaction with Kim Santiago-Brown.
Fans at the game were tweeting Rob right after the dunk saying things like “this should be on ESPN” or “submit this video to ESPN.” He also found out when it aired because a follower, one of the baseball players at his university, tweeted about seeing Rob on ESPN with a picture.
The atmosphere of fans on Facebook is different. The responses aren’t as instantaneous; professional athletes, like Ryan Braun, cannot be contacted in the same manner. It’s a page about the athlete that can be liked; it’s not the person’s actual feed.
Ryan Braun has 252,564 likes on Facebook. “I’ve always had too many Facebook friends,” said Rob. He has 2,206.
Even though Rob has almost three thousand followers between his Facebook and Twitter accounts, there are still students on his campus that don’t recognize him.
“Who was that?” Katie asked after witnessing a conversation between Rob and a mutual friend.
“That’s Rob,” was her friend’s response.
“Rob who?”
“Rob Hogans, the basketball player.”
“Oh. I’ve never seen him up close before.”
There’s a possibility that the “Congratulations” received and other interactions on Facebook and Twitter are superficial.
“I like getting them [the Congratulations] though,” said Rob. It boils down to the desire to be acknowledged, to be liked by his followers. And by being at the top of the social hierarchy it’s an easy feeling to achieve.
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Dr. Paul Patton teaches a course at Rob’s university with a lecture that he calls “Celebrity and the Spirit of Hierarchy: The Salvation of Being Known.”
The focus of the lecture is the hierarchical theory of Kenneth Burke. The theory requires us to think of each hierarchy as a ladder or a mountain, with the high priests overseeing the system from the ladder’s top rung or the mountain’s peak.
The theory is also included in Burke’s theory of identification. It states that there are three stages: the process of naming something (or someone) according to specific properties, the process of associating and disassociating from others and the product or end result of identifying.
There are also four sources of identification that Burke also includes. Materialistic identification is through things that are all capable of being touched. Idealistic identification is through interests, ideas, attitudes, feelings, values, experience, perception, etc. Formal identification is based on the identification that arises from the form or arrangement in which both parties participate. Finally, identification through mystification is when people of a lower level in a hierarchy identify with people at the top of the hierarchy. It is also in this that the people at the top of the hierarchy tend to not present the division between the highest and lowest of the hierarchy.
Dr. Patton quotes the Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch. He says, “The mass media, with their cult of celebrity and their attempt to surround it with glamour and excitement, have made Americans a nation of fans and moviegoers. The media give substance to and thus intensify the narcissistic dreams of fame and glory, encourage the common man to identify himself with stars.”
The “celebrity” status of an athlete on a college campus is based on their followers and the fandom that follows them. It fuels the narcissistic desires within and lead to moments like Rob’s acceptance of even the most superficial friendships because of his status with his peers.
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“I want to take a moment to especially thank the fans, all the fans who have supported me as well as the fans who withheld judgment as I respected the confidentiality of this case,” said Ryan Braun in his press conference about the steroid case.
Braun thanks his friends, his family, the Milwaukee Brewers organization and the fans.
Is he really thanking them for withholding judgment or is he thanking because they’re still going to show up to games and spend money on jerseys, concessions and other things that help pay for his $45,000,000.00 contract? The only way to know is if we were in Braun’s head.
He continues on to say, “I told them that I promise you on anything that’s ever meant anything to me in my life – the morals, the values, the virtues by which I’ve lived in my 28 years on this planet – I did not do this.”
He may have said that he didn’t do it, but didn’t Bill Clinton say, “I didn’t have sexual relations with that woman” when he really did? The same could be true of Ryan Braun.
As fans we don’t know Ryan Braun the way that his family members, close friends and teammates do. He’s simply a person we’ve given celebrity status to, are a fan of and is outside of our personal social circles.
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One of Rob’s teammates, Matt signed to play professional basketball in Australia. This signing isn’t something that happens on their campus. It’s big news, worthy of compliments and congratulations.
A student who sits next to Matt in one of her courses wants to do just that. But too nervous to say anything, she sits there giving a personal pep talk to turn to him and say “Congratulations.”
“Congratulations on Australia,” she finally says.
“Thanks.”
The conversation was over.
Rob’s reaction was far different. “I felt like I was the one being signed,” he said.
One day Rob hopes to be signed. If he were to play in the United States, he’d want to be with the Detroit Pistons or the Los Angeles Lakers. If it were overseas he’d like to be in France or Spain.
When asked why those places overseas his response was, “They have the most money.”
Rob may love basketball and want to be known for his skills on the court (and appear more times on ESPN), it’s the money he could earn playing professional basketball that he thinks about. “It’s a bonus to playing the game I love.” But is it really? Only Rob and his closest friends and family know.
When Rob signs to play professional basketball, his celebrity status will no longer just be as the guy on campus that made ESPN. His former classmates will be saying, “I knew him when he was just a freshman,” or “He smiled at me in the gym one time.”
Those will be the people that travel to the stadium just to see him play and then in a roundabout way they’ll be paying for his contract. They’ll be his fans.
And he’ll thank them in the same manner as Ryan Braun did if something doesn’t go right with his career.