I'm trying my best to sound as intelligent as possible when I'm commenting and also to not knock opinions – both are losing battles.
But the stereotypes our sport fights are killed when things like this happen. What if someone like a town councilmen or a city part official listens and hears that disc golfers are non-educated and living in their parents' basement and then someone wants to put a course in or run a tournament? That's a big problem.
In the end, we have caused our own issues. If people didn't smoke pot when they played disc golf, then we wouldn't have that image. If Allen Iverson didn't rap about raping women, then NBA players wouldn't be seen as thugs. Had Michael Irvin never done cocaine, then the Cowboys wouldn't be seen as fellons. Had Patrick Sherrill not shot 14 people in a post office, then the phrase "going postal" wouldn't have happened.
I truly believe for our sport to progress, we have to fight when these stereotypes come up. Luckily, we have researched facts – like the ones I posted on facebook – regarding income figures and education figures of PDGA members.
This whole thing has been great for Drew and his show. 24 hours ago many of us, including me, had no clue who he was. And even I, a HUGE sports talk radio listener / fan had heard about his show, I would no reason to listen. I don't care about Tampa area sports. But now, a guy up in Raleigh, NC is eagerly anticipating going home tonight and downloading the podcast from today's show.
But I truly believe we can make a win win out of this. And that's my goal now. Let's enhance the sport – get him involved in some sort of charity event. You know his station and other media would be there. We know he will fail at it and then he realizes the sport is tougher than he thought, a charity makes money, and we move on.