Who did you look up to as a child? Did you idolize a performer? Try and jump like Michael Jordan? Or was it a teacher who really made the difference?
All of us have a list of people we look up to. When it comes to young people, they often model the behavior of the people they admire. Especially when it comes to young boys, these are the slam-dunking, ball pitching, body-slamming sports celebrities our youth watch pulling the team to victory and earning six figure salaries with aparant ease. It's no wonder. When you're still gaining a start in life, that lavish lifestyle and exceptional athletic ability are exciting. "Reach for your dreams!" "Anything is possible," is the message.
The impact is far-reaching, for good or for bad. Celebrity sports players don't have a choice when it comes to their influence; it goes along with the territory when as a star, every move you make is caught in the public eye. We see the cars they drive, the houses they live in, know who they're dating, watch documentaries on their lives, and are told as much personal information as the media can dig up. Love it or hate it, what they do does matter.
A lot of sports players are asked to make appearances and speak to groups of young people. The point is to be inspiring, encourage them to stay in school, stay out of drugs, and achieve big goals. Although I admire the time these players devote to such public appearances, I believe that the meat of the message is lost in the novelty of the youth seeing such a famous person up-close and the chance to get an autograph. However, there is still a positive message. But if the positive message isn't followed by a high standard of living in their personal life, this message will turn into a negative influence.
As history would have it, I don't believe that many sucessful people can attribute their drive to a motivational speaker, famous or not, but to someone who has an active role in their life. I HAVE seen young people make poor choices based on negative publicity their role models create. Drug scandals, drunk driving, sexual exploits, and bad attitudes make a longer lasting impression. Some of this is a parent's responsibility to guard what is appropriate and inappropriate for the child to know; some information is too public to hide no matter what.
Ultimately, it is the sports star's social responsibility to not only be impressionable, but leave the kind of impression they can be proud to attribute themselves to. Words only go so far if they aren't backed up by moral actions.