Hope Solo's Views On Professional Athletes

Hope Solo’s arrest for domestic violence has been the cause of much debate due to the fact that she was not suspended from playing soccer. Many people believe that she was let off easily because of the current Women’s World Cup taking place. Losing such a talented player would be a very difficult situation for the American team to recover from. I was surprised to read that many authors chose to discuss people’s views on professional athletes in general rather than focus exclusively on Solo. To begin, the most solid statement proposed was given by sports marketer Bob Dorfman. He said, “Do not for a moment think that professional athletes are role models off the field of play… They amaze us with their physical prowess, inspire us with their dedication to their sport, thrill us with their prodigious skills,
but that’s it.” I chose this because I feel that people expect too much from professional athletes.
A person that is recognized for being very physically talented does not sign up to be a perfect role model. They are still human and they will make mistakes. This does not mean that I agree that what Solo did was acceptable and should go unpunished. On the contrary, I believe there should have been some kind of disciplinary action taking place which leads me to Maggie Merten’s argument. She states, “This case isn’t necessarily a problem of a gender ‘double-standard,’ but of an unclear U.S. Soccer policy.” This was another effective argument because it concludes that the controversy of the situation comes down to ambiguous guidelines not only for the women’s soccer organization, but all athletic institutions. To complete this idea, Merten stated, “Ending domestic violence issues in professional athletics means leagues need clear, transparent, conduct policies, ideally that include
rehab and counseling programs in addition to game suspensions… to show that as a federation it takes these incidents seriously and actually wants to help stop them, whether the players in question are male or female.” This was a very valid idea to conclude with because it portrays how situations similar to this one should be handled in the future. Choosing and evaluating the weakest points made was difficult because I agreed with the perspective of the author, but not how she expressed it. Columnist Keli Goff argued, “If a high profile athlete with a name like Henry Solo or a Hakeem Solo were accused of domestic violence, the outcome would be very different.” Basically, what Goff is trying to say is that if Solo was an African-American male rather than an attractive, white, female, she wouldn’t have been let off the hook so easily. I believe this is true due to present day stereotypes. The only problem I have with this statement is that Goff did not support it with factual evidence. She should have included some form of statistics or gathered research to promote her argument. All in all, the statement itself I agree with, just not the presentation. As for an important research question, I think I would look into the current, yet vague guidelines for these situations in different professional athletic organizations and how these situations have been dealt with in the past with varying athletes.