So the “douchebag” backlash on Phelps includes:
Have a friend who was deeply involved at the athletic department at Michigan (where Phelps attends college)– did training for the football team for four years, etc — and during Olympic qualifying when the Phelps buzz started to build was emphatic in explaining that he hated Phelps. He’s a pretty laid-back guy, so I asked why. He merely said: “Giant, drunk-driving, toolbag douche. Huge douche.”
That seems like a pretty standard description of 90% of the 23-year old guys I knew and 99% of Murray Hill.
So… yeah.
Don’t you think if you have more gold medals than Zeus you’re kind of allowed to be a douchebag? Wouldn’t you kind of hate him if he was humble and like “it’s all just hard work” instead of being like “I’m freaking awesome and you should know it?”