Often times in sports today, we get so focused on the wrong things. We put winning above everything. We question which players are using steroids. We hear about another crime committed by an athlete. Players like Michael Vick and Pacman Jones are always in the 
headline. These are the stories that people are reading, so these are the stories that we see day in and day out in the sport landscape. ESPN and all of the major sports information websites keep the stories in heavy rotation, and I'm not saying that it's wrong, just interesting.
Well, on Thursday ESPN puplished a story about a little town, with one strong little boy, and five athletes who put that boy above themselves to honor him. Last week, in my home town at Lake Fenton High School, sophomore Eli Florence was crowned Homecoming King. Eli suffers from acute myelogenous leukemia, and has fought the disease since 2003. About a month ago, Eli was only given a few weeks to live. He is still fighting though, and he has become a symbol of strength for the small Michigan community.
headline. These are the stories that people are reading, so these are the stories that we see day in and day out in the sport landscape. ESPN and all of the major sports information websites keep the stories in heavy rotation, and I'm not saying that it's wrong, just interesting.Well, on Thursday ESPN puplished a story about a little town, with one strong little boy, and five athletes who put that boy above themselves to honor him. Last week, in my home town at Lake Fenton High School, sophomore Eli Florence was crowned Homecoming King. Eli suffers from acute myelogenous leukemia, and has fought the disease since 2003. About a month ago, Eli was only given a few weeks to live. He is still fighting though, and he has become a symbol of strength for the small Michigan community.
The five senior athletes who made up Lake fenton's Homecoming Court decided together to give the crown to Eli. Those youmg men were football players Jake Kirk, Lucas Hasenfratz, David Bittinger and Matthew Taneyhill, and golfer Ethan Meriverta. They decided this on there own, and kept it a secret from Eli until the night he was crowned. They made a small sacrifice to brighten the life of Eli, even if it was only for one day. Now I know this doesn't have a whole lot to do with marketing, but I thought it was nice to see a story like this make it to the front page of ESPN. We need more stories like this in sports. I for one enjoy seeing an uplifting story like this in the headlines. I just wanted to shed some light on it, and say how proud of those five athletes that I am. Finally I just wanted to let you know about a 15 year old named Eli who is a true fighter, and a true hero for one little town.
1 comment:
I think this story could have something to do with marketing. In other areas of business, ethics has began to become of growing importance. If we concentrate just on business marketing, being ethical is an aspect that some companies are using to give them selfs the competitive advantage in a particular market. Since technology is turning into such an ordinary advantage for businesses now, one way to set your product apart form the others is by proving that you do "the right thing" because now a days so many companies have been caught doing things the wrong way to get ahead. Becoming more honorable and concentrating on the good things on ESPN etc. could be a great way to turn around the field of sport which could lead to even promoting more interest in the game of sport.
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