Sports figures appear to be failing as role models because it is only in recent years that the media has elevated them to universal icons. Moreover now sports figures are earning so far in excess of their societal value that society instinctively wants something back.

However, sports men and women have been nothing more than human, in the past and now. They have all the vices that everyone else possesses and now they are in a goldfish bowl and their vices appear bigger than life while their virtues are less well known.

There is another aspect. Many of these sports figures are very poorly educated. In the major baseball, football, and basketball leagues, the youngster's only ambition was to excel in one sport and make millions from playing a game at which he (or she) knew that he (or she) excelled. The impetus to learn was simply not present so that going to a college to be picked by a professional team was simply a step along the way not an opportunity to learn. That's why the National Football League makes such a big thing before games of having players announced what college they came from. It is an attempt to show that they have some education, but the very falsehood of this destroys any chance that those sports figures could be real role models.

There are exceptions and they are generally sports figures who took their education as a priority and sports as an add-on even though they reached the heights. Two exceptional examples come to mind that are excellent role models. Any youngster could do better than to emulate Tiger Woods who got his degree at Stanford while playing amateur golf; and Michelle Kwan, the gymnast. Fortunately, when I think of it, golfers are, as a class, excellent role models, because politeness and courtesy is part of the game.

Thus, major league players have the die cast against them. Despite being able to hit a homer or dunk a shot, they are fundamentally not the type of person who is cut out to be a role model. Furthermore, because the media now watches (and reports) every move, they appear to be failing in a task that has been imposed upon them by the public.

They are not failing; they have never been role models.

Learn more about this author, John Graham.
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