NEWS FEED

Privacy limited with fame

Written by Andrew Murray, Staff Writer

Members of the press crowded around a small airplane in a New Jersey airport. A welcome fit for a king greeted former Denver Bronco and new back-up quarterback for the New York Jets, Tim Tebow.

After becoming a sensation for his remarkable play on the field, Tebow had become an overnight celebrity. Athletes and non-athletes alike copied his “tebowing,” taking a knee to pray. His unconventional ritual inspired songs, TV parodies and Internet videos.

The quarterback’s ballooning popularity immediately affected his privacy as “Tebowmania” swept the country.

Tebow’s controversial comments on topics such as abortion sparked a backlash from the public and from the media as Tebow’s celebrity status changed from respect to ridicule.

Tebow was recently traded to New York. Some sports analysts have said that the transition from a small market team in Denver to a large-market New York sports franchise could also take a toll on Tebow’s private life. Tebow, however, has said that he will not be fazed by the attention.

“I’m sure there will be some pressure, but, you know, I’ve always enjoyed pressure,” Tebow said in his first interview as a Jet. “Before every football game I play, I always get a little bit nervous. I think I play better when I have more on the line.”

An athlete who appears to have cooled on the court because of intense media pressure is New York Knicks basketball point guard Jeremy Lin, the first American-born player of Asian descent in the National Basketball Association. The little-known Lin shot to fame after coming off the Knicks bench to score 20 or more points almost every game during two weeks in February, creating a media phenomenon known as “Linsanity.”

Media prying into Lin’s private life increased dramatically.

“The special request I have is for the media back in Taiwan to give space, because they can’t even go to work without being bombarded, without people following them,” Lin said when asked about the situation his relatives were in.

Athletes are not the only victims of media pressure. Celebrities have had major issues with paparazzi and have even filed lawsuits against them. According to the British website The Independent, in 2010, 21 percent of all privacy cases in the UK involved high profile individuals. That means that 1 in every 5 cases involved a celebrity claiming his or her right to privacy.