Those jocks aren't failing as role models. Most today just don't give a damn when someone else decides stars should act like a positive role model. Why should they?

If you are taken from a childhood of poverty and obscurity, and suddenly at age 18 or 20, made into a national hero with your name and picture pasted all over the media, would you stop to consider any change in your previous behavior? Further, if you suddenly go from not having enough money to buy new shoes to being drowned in millions of dollars, would you care whether other people considered you a positive role model or not?

Along with all your newfound money and acclaim, you didn't get a quick course in civil behavior nor inspirational leadership. You are what you always were, a guy trying to make it in a cruel world with the only skill you have ... athletics. And the more arrogant the money and acclaim make you, the less incentive you have to follow any rules of social behavior, much less care about what little kids may think of you.

So, moralists and naysayers, forget your lectures about athlete role models. No one is listening anyhow, even if you're sincere in your criticism or jealousy or whatever. As long as there are unlimited amounts of cash and brightly-lit acclaim out there for the jocks, whether pro or soon-to-be-pro, your opinions aren't worth a hill of beans.

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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