That's not really a contrarian view, man. It looks like you are trying to have your cake and eat it, too.
The rest of your post just shows that A.J. is human like the rest of us.
As far as publicity, what is wrong with publicizing charity to help at-risk kids, single parents, shelters for abused people, and food banks? I hope he inspires lots of folks to help out. This world needs more people like him to be quite honest. He's not a typical WR in the NFL that looks for self-gloss.
Sure.
I guess if I had to really convey the "why" of what I said, it would be this idea we have that what we see on a Facebook or twitter feed, or what we see in ESPN The Magazine, or what we see through Texans' public relations efforts, is the official guidebook for what a player *is* in his real life.
We always wonder why we never could picture Marvin Harrison as this guy who would run down a street and shoot a dude in broad daylight. I mean, wow, who saw THAT coming?
Who saw Steve McNair getting off'd by a Dave & Buster's waitress?
I just wanted to say, and probably it's quasi trouble-making in this thread, that pictures and Good Samaritan deeds (while nice, i agree) don't always paint the full picture of what a person is.
For all I know, he's a bad tipper and doesn't like to placate people out in public for whatever reason. That could be all of it.
Whether a person is a star or not, I typically find myself somewhat disappointed in any person who stiffs a waiter or says things like "I won't give YOU an autograph...but I'll give an autograph to HER..." Then it's "Smile for the camera! You bought a **** load of toys for kids! Way to go!"
It's the duality of our life: The public persona and the more accurate picture of what we look like when we think we're not on camera. That's all. But yeah, dude is way above and beyond his colleagues in terms of acts of kindness. Cannot argue that at all. And I think that's good.