athletes as role models
... benefits are overwhelmed. ... (Sports) doesn't do most of the things people claim it does, but it sure is good entertainment." This is not just about winning, as Miracle said, or greed, self-righteous attitudes, and violence but cheating with performance enhancing drugs and immorality with disrespect to their team and family. For these reasons Professional Athletes should not be used today as role models or to promote products to youth. The biggest issue our pro athletes face right now is their reoccurring involvement with the judicial system and violence. In "Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL," authors Jeff Benedict and Don Yaeger estimate that of the 1996/97 NFL players, 21 percent were playing with criminal records ranging from domestic violence to rape and assault. That still leaves us with 79% of the athletes being role model eligible. Why does it still seem like there is a shortage? According to sport psychologist Julian Morrow, ”…the type of person and attitude required to succeed in sports -- especially violent sports like football -- make athletes, almost by definition, a tough sell as role models. What makes a player successful on the field -- anger, risk- taking, limited impulse control -- may not make him someone you want living next door.” In 2001, a few weeks before the Super Bowl, all-star player Ray Lewis was standing trial for a double murder. Even though the prosecution dismissed the charges brought against him, Lewis pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, admitting that he lied to the police during their double homicide investigation. Shannon Sharpe, a fellow teammate of Lewis was irritated at Wheaties, after the Super Bowl, for leaving Lewis out of the team picture. Meanwhile, on the other end of town, Green Bay Packer tight end Mark Chmura was on trial for sexual assault and child enticement. A 17-year-old girl accused him of raping her. While he too was able to escape his charges, his lawyer was quoted as saying “Chmura put himself in a bad situation by being drunk with kids and in a hot tub in his underwear. .... We all agreed that they were in the bathroom together. But we don't really know what took place." In 1997 Latrell Spreewell was suspended for assaulting his coach, P.J. Carlesimo. I believe the encounter went something like this: Sprewell places his hands around the neck of his coach for 10-15 seconds while informing the coach he was prepared to kill him. Serious damage could have been done if players had not interfered, but P.J. was left with only a 3 inch welt. Sprewell returned twenty minutes later only to confront the coach again with a punch in the face. When asked at a press conference why this took place his response was “There’s only so much verbal abuse I can take. P.J. did not talk nice to me.” The most recent, and probably most violent event in professional sport history, occurred at the Piston vs. Pacers game in Detroit last Thanksgiving. The whole skirmish began when Detroit's Ben Wallace gave Ron Artest a hard, two-handed shove in the chest and face after being fouled with 45.9 seconds left in the game. This started a scuffle between the two teams ending when the referees called an end to the game. Not a big deal. At this time everything began to calm down until someone threw a full cup of something on Artest, who, bizarrely, was lying face up on the scorer's table. This ...