For most of us we all have people we look up to in our lives whether it be our parents, celebrities or friends. For me many of my role models are professional athletes. However sometimes when I am talking to people and mention some of my role models they say things like you shouldn’t look up to them they are only in it for the money or the women and end up getting arrested. But is that necessarily true? For me professional athletes are great role models because of their courage, hard work.
Let’s start by looking at where the stereotype of athletes being criminals and bad role models come from. This year a few sports stars have made some very bad decisions and caused many people to think all athletes are like that. The worst story that happened this year was Ray Rice hitting his wife and knocking her unconscious. This story lead to Fox news saying “Football players are used to being able to beat each other up on the field they think it is also acceptable off the field”. This image is a cartoon depicting the incident with Ray Rice. The two main elements that stick out from the picture is the dark figure standing over the women and the referee wearing a shirt with NFL on it. I say dark figure because the artist has almost made the player look unhuman, like a monster which we should all run and hide from. The squinted eyes and the dark shading and colours used emphasize the monster like man who should be avoided. Also the man wearing the NFL shirt holding the players hand up like he just won a fight showing how the NFL supports this kind of actions and we should stay away from people like the player and the NFL.
So, obviously not all athletes are perfect and there is some proof that they are bad role models but should all athletes be wrongly stereotyped as criminals and bad people who should be avoided. The image below is the nfl logo but is has been changed to an image of a man behind bars with a football above. The image is trying to show the nfl is full of dangerous people who should be put behind bars. Many people think that nfl players are dumb jocks who go out on the field and beat each other up and then act the exact same way off the field. If this were true NFL players would be terrible role models but luckily that is just a stereotype. The next image is some actual stats of nfl players arrests.
There are 1700 nfl players in the league and only 54 players have been arrested compared to 280 people getting arrested for normal citizens. So these images show just how wrongly sports figures are being stereotyped as criminals when most of the players are only playing their sports.
However not being a criminal isn't enough to make a person a good role model there's a lot of other things involved. For me those things are courage and hard work. This picture is of former NBA player Jerry Stackhouse when he was a teenager.
The things that stick out most to be in this picture is the surrounding area and the time of day. First off the background is obviously a poor area. All the building are wearing down and the street is torn up even the basketball net isn’t the highest quality to practice on. Secondly the time of day is getting close to night time when most people would be inside getting ready for bed. This image sticks with me because to overcome these standards of living and eventually make it to the NBA would require a tremendous amount of time and effort put into the sport. By putting in the hard work he was able to overcome these obstacles and to me that makes a very good role model.
Lastly, I have an image of my personally role model with his sister. My personal role model is Dwyane Wade. There are many reasons for this mostly related to basketball but the main reason is because of his story. When Dwyane grew up his parents were divorced and he lived with his mom and sister who were poor. When Dwyane started to become good at basketball and his sister realized he could have a future his sister drove him to his father’s house telling him she would be back soon and she never returned because their father had more money and could provide a better future for Dwyane. Dwyane wouldn’t see his sister for another 5 years and he now credits his basketball career to her for making that decision. For me to courage to be able to continue on with basketball and life after you sister basically abandoning without reason is why he is my role model because of the courage and perseverance it took for his basketball career to become possible.
In conclusion to me sports figures are some of the best role models a person can have. Even though many of them are wrongly stereotyped as criminals and some may fit that description.Many athletes can teach us perseverance, courage and hard work to accomplish our dreams.
Works Cited
Flynn, Candace. “GREEN TIE BALL AND MORE: CHICAGO IS ON FIRE WITH HOT EVENTS FOR FALL!” Candid Candace. N.p., 4 Aug. 2011. Web. 18 Jan. 2015. <http://candidcandace.typepad.com/my_weblog/2013/09/green-tie-ball-and-more-chicago-is-on-fire-with-hot-events-for-fall.html>.
Gandalf, Jerry. “NBA PLayers who grew up in poverty.” Animait. N.p., 5 June 2010. Web. 18 Jan. 2015. <http://www.animateit.net/details.php?image_id=4373>.
Hayes, Stephen. “NFL Slayers: Gangstas For Obamacare.” Political Clown Parade. N.p., 5 Jan. 2011. Web. 18 Jan. 2015. <http://politicalclownparade.blogspot.ca/2013_06_01_archive.html>.
Lundberg. “National Felon League.” Lundberg. N.p., 3 Apr. 2007. Web. 18 Jan. 2015. <http://lundberg.me/2010/03/29/national-felon-league/>.
Martin, Jill. “Ray Rice terminated by team, suspended by NFL after new violent video.” CNN. N.p., 4 Sept. 2014. Web. 18 Jan. 2015. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/08/us/ray-rice-new-video/>.
Reid I found your ISU topic and presentation quite interesting as I equally share quite the passion for sports. You did a great job organizing your photos as well as with your research. Sports topics can be far harder to find due to the amount of other news that is circulated, because of this I found that you did a great job. I also agree with your point saying that most athletes are great people and have worked very hard to get where they are today, as well as most if not all professional athletes do a great deal in helping with there home communities, as well as charities. A great example of this is Eli Manning. Manning supports several charities, including the Red Cross, Phoenix House, March of Dimes and St. Francis Food Pantries and Shelters. As well as has raised $2.5 million for the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Children’s Hospital, and finally has donated $1 million of his own money to the University of Mississippi’s Ole Miss Opportunity Scholarship fund. So overall I do agree with your thesis saying that professional athletes are amazing role models and continue to excel as athletes while still doing amazing things for charities, there home towns, and people in need, and I believe we can learn a lot from them. Even though we may not have quite as large of a bank account we can still do our part to better mankind as an individual, town, and nation.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Kyle! I agree that athletes do many things for charities and organizations like the NBA, NFL, etc donate upwards of 100 million a year to different charities. As you can see this makes athletes a great role model. Just like you said although we may not have as much money as they do we can still do our part in contributing to causes we support. Even though some athletes make mistakes many of them continue to play at a high level while giving kids someone to look up to and being a great leader and role model within the world and their own communites
ReplyDeleteI believe this was a good topic to choose because their are different sides to this subject. Of course, everyone makes mistakes. Unfortunately, some are worse than others, and when they are in the case of professional athletes, the media finds out about it. I believe professional sports athletes are role models for younger children. Because of this, they need to always be aware of their actions. They should be using their publicity in a positive manner. Take Ray Lewis for example. He was suspected of murder due to a stabbing at a night club. This was a bad decision for Ray Lewis, as his publicity was used in a bad way. However, Lewis is a gentle, family man. He goes to hospitals and spends time with cancer patients, and is active in charity. He even spent a large amount of time with an old man who was dying, and was a die-hard ravens fan. This proves how role models can be good people, and make mistakes. All in all, athletes are under more pressure for their mistakes, as media today is everywhere following these people around. If a role model athlete makes a mistake, it is ultimately up to them to right their wrong.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Keagan. Of course with all the media attention that athletes get they need to be especially careful on how they and unfortunately some have made very poor choices in their life. Ray Lewis is a good example of this even though he may have made a mistake in his life he realized how much of a role model he is to kids and now uses his time to spend time with cancer patients and the elderly. In today's world media is more focused on the bad things and they get all the attention instead of people making good decisions. So with all the good decisions athletes make I believe that makes them good role models who need to extra attentive to what they do because of the media.
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ReplyDeleteYou present many good points within this presentation, but I do have to point out that it depends on what athlete you idolise. With all the good some do, unfortunately the bad apples are the ones that stick out. When I look at the sports page on a newspaper, beside all the best plays of the day, it can be seen who is taking what steroid and who has broken what in the last play. Reverting to Christian's presentation about Emotional investment, is it really healthy to idolise these people if it means bringing you distress or literal depression when they lose?
ReplyDeleteVery Interesting ISU topic Reid, also a topic I can really get behind with you! I am a big sports fan just like you are and the Athletes I admire also are affected by these stereotypes too, but its not just athletes its musicians as well. Take Billy Talent for example; Billy Talent is a rock band and everyone in the band can speak of being affected by the rock and roll stereo type when in fact their lives off stage are completely the opposite. I feel like the world wrongly judges hundreds of people because of their achievements and the others who have reached similar goals. Great to hear you speak, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI believe athletes are great role models. Most of my role models are athletes so I can relate to what you are saying. I feel the media can twist stories so the the athlete can gain a bad reputation. The way that some athletes become who they are is pretty remarkable. Take Micheal Jordan for example, he didn't make his high school basketball team and if he didn't keep practicing to make himself better after this he wouldn't have been the athlete that he became. I think athletes are people striving to make their dreams come true and that is someone who is a great role model.
ReplyDeleteI also believe athletes are great role models. So many of them have gotten to where they are because of hard work and focus, something which I believe a lot of our society can learn a lot from. Sadly though, there are those out there such as Ray Rice that become caught up in the glory and do terrible things, creating the negative stereotypes that people have about athletes, which in turn causes many to look away from athletes as role models, causing them to miss out on everything the could learn from these people.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunatley as a sports player, they are supposed to be role models to the youth, and as one expression says ¨you can succeed a thousand times, but once you make a mistake, that's what you are known for. What ray rice did was extremely immature and it shouldn't be accepted by any means, but he is still a good football player and should be remembered for his greatness as well. This is the same for any other players in his situation. Just because the guy made a mistake, it doesn't make him or every other player a bad person. Overall, a great presentation.
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