Preview

Professional Athletes as Role Models

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2332 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Professional Athletes as Role Models
Are Today's Professional Athletes Good Role Models?

Everyday today's youth are asked what they want to be when they grow up. Some say teachers, firemen, police officers and a large response to that question is a professional athlete. Something that all these professions have in common is that they are all role models to children. Firemen, teachers, police officers have an easy job at doing this; they are after all the people that save children, teach children and protect children. But professional athletes on the other hand have a difficult task assigned to them when it comes to being role models. Professional athletes are not given an option as to be a role model or not. Just because they have a special gift does not make them have to be looked up to. Professional athletes are not good role models because of the things they do off the court, the false identity they put on, and because of the fact that in a lot of instances they are just an image on TV. A role model is a person who is looked up to by a younger person because that person sets good examples and is an ideal model of where a child should be later in life. Role models play a big part in everyone's life. For some they are a parent, some an older brother and like I said earlier some are firemen, policemen and teachers. Athletes are considered to be role models to many people across the world. Professional athletes are people who can do something athletic extremely better than any other person. They can run faster, throw harder, hit further and jump higher than anybody else. This is what makes them professionals. They don't save lives, protect people from harm or do things that really have a severe impact on people. Professional athletes are just people with better athletic ability than others. It is a job for them to perform on a daily basis, whatever skill they have. They don't get paid to be role models, they get paid to run fast, throw hard, hit far and jump high. The issue at hand is



Cited: Brown, Ashley. "Are Players Role Models?" The Lantern 5 Dec. 2003: 3 Globus, Sheila. "Athletes as role models." Current Health 2 Feb. 1998: 25-27. Malone, Karl. "One Role Model to Another" Sports Illustrated 14 June 1993: 84 Sailes, Gary. "Professional Athletes: Cultural Icons or Social Anomalies?" USA Today Sept. 2001: 57-59. Temander, Rick. "The Wrong People for the Job." Sports Illustrated 23 Dec. 1991: 108. Trovato, Peter. "Today 's Role Models Disappoint." Daily Collegian 6 November 2003: 75-76

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Kids these days look up to famous movie stars, and professional athletes. Not just because they are famous and have money, which is a big part of it, but also because they do great things with that money. These famous people show compassion and kindness to humanity, depending on what they do it can do wonders. The reason they are important is that they go above and beyond with good acts of kindness. Brett Favre, Bill Gates, and Jim Carrey are all very good role model.…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Superbowl Myths

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The norms and standards of society go unnoticed by many athletes throughout the country, who believe that the game acts as a platform for the expression of their own individuality. As every fans are awed by each and every personality that walks the field, a greater amount of influence is granted to the athletes. They are shown as "respectable" figures that are equivalant to our modern day gods. This thought process is an exact depiction of Campbell's third rule. By putting an extremely god like sterotype on athletes we are creating a social order where athletes are the elites. Other qualifications that are needed for a progressive society areleft behind and the vast majority of society dreams of becoming a world famous athlete. It's not that athletes aren't great, just that their shouldn't be so much commotion for a career which may as well last a few short…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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,…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Professional athletes are celebrities in today’s world. The superstars of their sport get paid millions of dollars every year. They are also role models for many young people that wish to play the same sport. But it wasn’t always that way; however, sports have always been affected by the culture of that time. In the 1960’s sports have been affected by war, racism, and politics.…

    • 1175 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    According to a recent study done by the European Physical Education Review (2005), only a small percentage of those high school students chose a sports figure as their role model. But, if a sports figure is chosen as a role model it is because that child is into the same sports that the sports figure is in.…

    • 531 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 was passed into legislation with the original intent to help women in the workforce of higher education with equal pay and to suppress gender discrimination. Because of the social history of the time in which there were more instances of success for female athletes as well as several low state court cases for athletically talented girls in junior high, Title IX had been reformulated by congress members to focus on female participation in sports. Today, Title IX is best known for its regulations in ensuring equal athletic opportunities for men and women. With the passing of Title IX by Federal Law makers in 1972, the number of female athletes dramatically increased. Since 1971, the NCAA has had an increase of over 450% of female athletes, and in high schools, an increase of over 900%. Prior to the 1970’s and Title IX, it was not common in America to be a female athlete. This caused more participation of women in sports than ever before in American history, and new magazines launched for this new population, such as Women Sports. But despite the increase of participation in athletics, females continued to be portrayed as passive and feminine in advertisements used in Women Sports. For women, the word female became an adjective instead of a noun when it came to athletics and sports. Because being athletic was, and is, a manly attribute, the increase of female athletes during the period after the passing of Title IX broadened the role of women in American society, yet the definition of female and the definition of athlete remained the same.…

    • 3554 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Should any athlete be judged on what kind of person he or she is on or off the field, court, or swimming pool? The answer is yes, athletes should be punished for actions which occur in their own personal lives. In today’s world, sport stars and other athletes are looked up to by all ages. Everyone loves them. They look great in the eyes of the everyday public. They appear on television; they perform like rock stars, and do this with the entire world watching. But do athletes’ responsibilities affect only his or her performance on the field of play or does it also extend to his personal life as well? There are many who claim that it is wrong for a sophisticated society to force a set of behavior expectations on people who just happen to do extremely well in sports. “I am not a role model” (I’m Not a, par 1). That statement was said by former National Basketball Association (NBA) player Charles Barkeley. Some other players agree with him, in the fact, they do not and don’t expect to be considered role models (I’m Not a, par. 1). But the truth is, whether they like it or not, they are role models to many young fans who watch their every move on and off the field, and models their lives after how their favorite player does. Athletes should be judged on their actions off the field.…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Good Role models should have achieved a lot in life. Athletes have to be good or they will…

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why Athletes Get Paid?

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages

    People, mostly our youth, often idolize sport stars as successful citizens, and, in turn, those same youths mimics them in various aspects of the sport star’s life, setting a dangerous precedent for our malleable youth. For example, Michael Vick, a quarterback in the NFL (he is still, to this day, in the NFL), still receives pay from NFL franchises despite being charged with a felony offence by the federal authorities for participating and managing dog fights and dog executions. Vick did end up pleading guilty to the charges of managing and participating in illegal dog-fighting matches, yet he continues to play in the league. This essay has already discussed how wealth is often correlated to a person’s ethos, so it is not farfetched to think that youth would look up to him. Morally, is it OK to allow someone like Michael Vick to be a role model to our youth? This essay argues no, but as long as he receives is exorbitant amount of money from the NFL as salary, people will still see him as a figure of…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Giving the student the choice to do something great with their life and giving them helpful insight and a creative way of learning concepts. Whether or not the student decides to commit and work hard is really up to them, a teacher is someone that engages students to try new things and learn differently, really taking the time to understand everyone’s challenges and adjust accordingly. On the other side most athletes most of the time have little or no interaction with their following sometimes even ignoring them or leaving them feeling unimportant. The most that Athletes do is donate their change to the community, or by being paid to sign autographs to fans. So why are we glorifying all they do other than providing Sunday night entertainment for the family.…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Athletes are without a doubt the heroes of black communities and the inner cities. They must set the precedent. These are turbulent times in America and it’s finally good to once see athletes who are willing to do more.…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Homeless Role Models

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “It is Difficult for Athletes to be Role Models” is an article written by Gary Sailes and originally published in the USA Today Magazine on September 11, 2001. The original title was "Professionals Athletes: Cultural Icons or Social Anomalies." This is a newspaper article by the Society for the Advancement of Education. Sailes relies entirely on his education being a sports sociologist and opinion in this article, the main point of which is that the professional athletes be morally obligated to take the responsibility of acting as role models.…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the young and naive children we were, adults always told us to never give up on our dreams. This statement usually applied to the impractical dreams of becoming president of the United States, transforming into a superhero, or playing alongside professional athletes. These were all big ideas and aspirations that fueled our carefree childhoods, and were appropriate practice for shaping the paths to our true passions we discover later on in our lives; particularly in high school. High school is where teenagers are able experiment and begin to understand themselves as individuals, rather than what everybody else likes to do. Of course there are exceptions to those who are the “followers” rather than the “leaders”, but I’d like to claim I had…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Athletes Off the Field

    • 1778 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The life of an athlete has changed significantly over the years. Their salaries have increased along with their popularity. But possibly the most considerable change has been in the culture. It seems that every day on ESPN we here about another athlete getting in trouble. Society loves to put athletes up on this metaphorical pedestal, but they love even more to watch them fall off. Of course there are athletes that we can look up to as model citizens, but the group’s image as a whole is most definitely suffering. When it comes to athletes, there is a lot more to it than what is seen on the field. Growing up, sports are used to teach lessons of hard work, discipline, and most of all teamwork. These three attributes are useful on and off the field. But what happens when natural talent allows an individual to succeed without developing these attributes? This individual will prosper without ever learning the true meaning of sport. Natural ability can be a curse to most athletes. They take their talent for granted and do not set goals to become better. Natural talent can only take one so far before their lack of hard work, discipline, and teamwork turns into their downfall. The off-the-field life of an athlete is one of partying, spending absurd amounts of money, and run-ins with the law. The development of this lifestyle evidently begins in college and eventually affects most athletes’ professional careers in a way that usually leads to their demise.…

    • 1778 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    However, professional athletes set bad examples for teens and young athletes. Michael A. Pore states that athletes are too easily forgiven for their bad behavior. You don’t need to use drugs to be good at something. They feel money comes easily, but money is not everything and does not come easily. Athletes send bad messages to kids; if you buy a certain product the athlete promotes, you will not perform better (Michael A. Pore, 40). Not everyone will perform the way professional athletes do and become famous.…

    • 925 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays