Adios Amigo: Survivor

If there was one person that I could vote off of celebrity island I would chose Marco Andretti. Marco Andretti is a Indy Car driver who is a decendant from a family with a great racing background. His grandfather and father have both been thought to be great drivers as well as great people by all of those around them. Although Marco Andretti is a great driver as well, he largely lets down his families reputation for being respectable and nice people in general. Whenever a race does not go his way, he blames every other person for the outcome. If someone makes a minor mistake, he openly insults them on live television and treats them as if they are inferior to him.

One comment that strongly influenced my opinion about Marco Andretti was when he talked about a driver that had unintentionally tapped his car when the driver braked late for a turn causing Andretti to spin out. After the race, the driver that made the mistake walked over to Andretti and apologized to him personally. Yet, when Andretti got interviewed afterward, he called the driver a terrible racer and a disgrace to the Indy Racing League. The fellow driver was crushed and felt disgraced by the comment. Another famous bout that Marco Andretti had was with teammate Danica Patrick after the race at Texas Motor Speedway. Marco Andretti was heated after having a long fight for fifth position which was occupied by fellow teamate Danica Patrick. Andretti was upset that Patrick did not give up the position to him even though she was trying to win the race just as much as he was. Andretti automatically assumed that he was the better driver and that she should have given him the position instead of making him fight for it like everyone else. After the race Marco said to the media "The toughest people out there (challenging) me are my teammates, and I don't get that. I think three out of the four of us get what the camaraderie of Andretti Green Racing is." He subtlety called Danica Patrick ignorant as well as ignoring the teams rules when in fact she did exactly what she was told to do.

The reason I have such a problem with people like Marco Andretti is that they have no respect for other competitors. Sports are meant to be competitive and that is what they were created for. They were created to be organized ways for people to see who was better than the other. Saying that someone should give up their hard work to give their teammate the spotlight is rediculous not to mention disrespectful. The other drivers had worked just as hard as him if not harder to get where they are so there is no reason why they should just hand over the win to someone else. Also, there is a difference between confronting someone about their mistakes and blatently disrespecting them in front of a crowd of millions just because you are upset. In my opinion, a great athlete and competitor is not just someone who is the fastest or strongest, but someone who has respect for the game and it's players as well.