Professional Athletes Are Not A Role Model
“I am not a role model, I am not paid to be a role model. I am paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents should be role models. Just because I dunk a basketball, doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.” – Charles Barkley. Professional athletes are not the best people to be role models for kids. Steven Ortiz, a sociology professor at Oregon State and the author of several published studies on athletes ' bad behavior says, "Spoiled-athlete syndrome begins early in sports socialization. From the time they could be picked out of a lineup because of their exceptional athletic ability, they 've been pampered and catered to by coaches, classmates, teammates, family members and partners. As they get older, this becomes a pattern. Because they 're spoiled, they feel they aren 't accountable for their behaviors off the field. They 're so used to people looking the other way."
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Professional athletes are chosen as role models for kids simply for the fact that they score goals, touchdowns, home runs and things like that.
Not that they like the family men they are or that they give money to charity. But that’s the good that athletes do. Kids don’t see the bad. When children look at an athlete, they see a two-time Super bowl winning quarterback, not someone accused of sexual assault twice. If Kobe Bryant was a child’s role model, would they want to be a 5 time NBA champion, or cheat on his wife and be accused of cheating on his wife? You never know, kids are very impressionable. Monkey see, monkey do
right? A child see’s Barry Bonds take performances enhancing drugs then break the all-time home run record, they would think about doing it too if it meant breaking records. Kids say they put athletes just behind parents on the role model scale. They put athletes there because “they’re good or want to be like them”. Do kids want to be like LeBron James, the four time MVP, or the egotistic quitter that left his small town for the bright lights of Miami? If you think kids will eventually learn the rights and wrongs of athletes, well, you’re wrong. Seventy-four percent of children say that it is common for an athlete to yell at a referee or umpire and 62 percent say that athletes taunting or trash talking an opponent is commonplace. And when a kid takes the court they try imitating their idols. They’ll try to MJ fade away with the tongue out. But also will trash talk other players and yell at the referee for a bad call. Athletes are held to a higher standard than other citizens. They’ve been spoiled all their lives and are still to the day. People treat them as if they are gods amongst us. They can party all night, get DUI’s, get charged for rape, and cheat on their wives. As long as they’re winning, the public will turn the other cheek. And kids don’t even know where babies come from let alone what a DUI is. So they don’t the bad just that MJ can dunk from the free throw line. One in three teens says that wild parties, unruly behavior and late nights is pretty routine in the lives of famous athletes. So if Terrell Owens had a late night, got a DUI and came home at 5 a.m. it would be normal but if dad did that it would be unacceptable and crazy. What are the standards of role models?
Work Cited
*Bery, Soven. Athletes ' Roles: An Investigation on Why Not All Athletes Make Good Role Models. Bleacherreport.com, December 5, 2011. December 30, 2013.*
Professional athletes are chosen as role models for kids simply for the fact that they score goals, touchdowns, home runs and things like that.
Not that they like the family men they are or that they give money to charity. But that’s the good that athletes do. Kids don’t see the bad. When children look at an athlete, they see a two-time Super bowl winning quarterback, not someone accused of sexual assault twice. If Kobe Bryant was a child’s role model, would they want to be a 5 time NBA champion, or cheat on his wife and be accused of cheating on his wife? You never know, kids are very impressionable. Monkey see, monkey do
right? A child see’s Barry Bonds take performances enhancing drugs then break the all-time home run record, they would think about doing it too if it meant breaking records. Kids say they put athletes just behind parents on the role model scale. They put athletes there because “they’re good or want to be like them”. Do kids want to be like LeBron James, the four time MVP, or the egotistic quitter that left his small town for the bright lights of Miami? If you think kids will eventually learn the rights and wrongs of athletes, well, you’re wrong. Seventy-four percent of children say that it is common for an athlete to yell at a referee or umpire and 62 percent say that athletes taunting or trash talking an opponent is commonplace. And when a kid takes the court they try imitating their idols. They’ll try to MJ fade away with the tongue out. But also will trash talk other players and yell at the referee for a bad call. Athletes are held to a higher standard than other citizens. They’ve been spoiled all their lives and are still to the day. People treat them as if they are gods amongst us. They can party all night, get DUI’s, get charged for rape, and cheat on their wives. As long as they’re winning, the public will turn the other cheek. And kids don’t even know where babies come from let alone what a DUI is. So they don’t the bad just that MJ can dunk from the free throw line. One in three teens says that wild parties, unruly behavior and late nights is pretty routine in the lives of famous athletes. So if Terrell Owens had a late night, got a DUI and came home at 5 a.m. it would be normal but if dad did that it would be unacceptable and crazy. What are the standards of role models?
Work Cited
*Bery, Soven. Athletes ' Roles: An Investigation on Why Not All Athletes Make Good Role Models. Bleacherreport.com, December 5, 2011. December 30, 2013.*