Preview

Should Athletes Feel Morally Obligated to Act as Role Models for Today Youth, and Why or How Might These Athletes Not Be Capable to Act as the Role Models That Society Would Like Tem to.

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2403 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Should Athletes Feel Morally Obligated to Act as Role Models for Today Youth, and Why or How Might These Athletes Not Be Capable to Act as the Role Models That Society Would Like Tem to.
Abstract Behavioral studies show that role models have an immense impact on today 's American youth. In this paper, there will be review and examination of the question, should athletes be morally obligated to take the responsibility of acting as role models and why, or why not? It will ask many questions that could change your opinion on what the responsibility of the athlete is or should be.

Table of Contents

Proposal

Children these days need role models more than ever. Crime rates are at a high, gang activity is increasing, and parents are working more, resulting in children being unsupervised. It all boils down to one word: why? Could one reason be that children are not being properly supervised? Parents have to take up second jobs or work really long hours to keep up with the increasing prices of homes and cost of living. This leaves teenagers and young boys and girls more exposed to the rough crowds and peer pressure of society. Instead of coming home from school and going down to the end of the street to play a game of baseball with the boys in the neighborhood, boys are now caught up video games that encourage shooting and fighting. Who in our world can help change this?
How can we as adults help the younger generation? We can encourage, suggest, and recommend positive activities and good people to look up to. Athletes? Never, has anyone asked for athletes to be perfect human beings and ask that they don 't do anything wrong. Yes, there are baseball players who use steroids, NBA players who leave the court to fight people in the stands, and yes there are football players that have gold teeth. But another argument that could be made is that there are far more good athletes than there are bad. Look at Michael Jordan, the best basketball player ever. He wasn 't caught up in drugs, gangs, and violence. So doest it all start with the parents? Commercials such as the save your kids ' foundation quotes "Your choices shape



References: Barr, R (2003, July 31) Kobe: A lesson learned. Sportsline.com Birnbaum, L (2003, July) Are role models right? Faculty.css.edu. Vol 6 No 7 Carte, G (1999, June 20) The new face of role model. Usaweekend.com Elder, L (2001, Feb 15) Athletes and role models. Townhall .com Hume, M (2001, September 18) Athletes are role models in crisis. Thehoya.com Lucchesi, R (2004 October 18) The misconception of athletes as role models. Californiaaggie.com Lundquist, J: Giuliano, T & Wike, K (2003 May 31) The emergence of professional athletes as role models. Psychologicalscience.com Mazeika, V (1997 September 22) Role-Playing. Daily bruin.ucla Miedzian, M (1991) Boys will be boys: Breaking the link between masculinity and violence. Peace.ca Williams, M (2004, Dec 7) Professional athletes as role models? Blackcollegeview.com

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Good Role models should have achieved a lot in life. Athletes have to be good or they will…

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kids these days look up to famous movie stars, and professional athletes. Not just because they are famous and have money, which is a big part of it, but also because they do great things with that money. These famous people show compassion and kindness to humanity, depending on what they do it can do wonders. The reason they are important is that they go above and beyond with good acts of kindness. Brett Favre, Bill Gates, and Jim Carrey are all very good role model.…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Copper Thompson’s section on “Boys being Boys” suggests to the readers that what if that traditional barrier was broken, how things would go about. I agree that boys that express their feelings and thoughts out tend to not resolve into violence.…

    • 292 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    With the rising interest in collegiate athletics, there is a need to further investigate the constructs of social responsibility and social accountability, especially considering the controversy surrounding the concept of amateurism in college sports. College sports usually have to balance between amateurism, education and commercialism. Amateurism is essential to collegiate athletics and rest on two pillars – the athletes are unpaid and they also are not professionals in training (Sports Science, 2011).…

    • 873 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I was surprised to read that many authors chose to discuss people’s views on professional athletes in general rather than focus exclusively on Solo. To begin, the most solid statement proposed was given by sports marketer Bob Dorfman. He said, “Do not for a moment think that professional athletes are role models off the field of play… They amaze us with their physical prowess, inspire us with their dedication to their sport, thrill us with their prodigious skills,…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    According to “Youth Sports In America: An Overview” sports are an excellent opportunity for social development. The Article states that, “…many of the social and moral requirements for sports parallel to how individuals must function in a law-abiding society” (7). This statement is true in theory, listening to your coaches and following orders at practice can teach you to follow the law and model how to act with say a supervisor, yet this is all assuming your coach teaches you how with more then an agenda to simply win at all cost. Although sports are thought to teach moral values “Youth Sports In America: An Overview” states this, “Sports themselves are not morel or immoral…however the potential does exist to enhance moral development…”(7). This tells us that sports its self is neutral, the people are in control of practice are the ones who install the morals that come with the…

    • 1549 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Richard L. Worsnop offers multiple different points about high school sports and athletes. Concerns about the oppression of young athletes and debating if high school athletics “builds character”, are some of the main issues pointed out. Some coaches believe interscholastic sports competitions teach everything about character and teamwork, while others believe overemphasizing a win can teach the growth of negative character traits. Meanwhile, there are no doubts that certain drugs can enhance an athlete’s performance, but this can lead to injury and other harmful effects. High school athletes are sometimes considered, “dumb jocks”, which leads to the question if student athletes should maintain a certain grade-point average. Some players think…

    • 269 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Re-Think Rape

    • 1987 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Kilmartin, Christopher. "Changing Male Attitudes Reduces Sexual Violence." Violence against Women. Ed. James D. Torr. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Current Controversies. Rpt. from "Editorial: Men 's Violence against Women." The Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity (SPSMM) Bulletin 10 (Spring 2006).Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 9 July 2013.…

    • 1987 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    By this time, clichés, privileges, and attitudes of superiority become a pattern that discerns a collegiate athlete in making critical decisions. Over time, impulse control disorders are so prevalent that athletes get used to other people making their decisions for them. The responsibility is then shifted, rendering the athlete powerless against his or her own destiny. As disorder norminates behavior through the absence of thought, responsible behavior become devoid as does the logic to abandon their college education for a chance as a professional athlete. Then again, how many of us would throw away the winning numbers to the…

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hip Hop Media Stunt Men

    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The media portrayal of men has affected our society for many years. The media tends to stunt men’s emotional depth and alter the ways that they are able to express themselves. Men will often turn to violence as a way to express themselves and to make themselves seem tougher than they actually are. These violent expressions are dangerous and involve not only other men, but can carry to the abuse of women and children. Misogyny is very present in modern day music and media.…

    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why Athletes Get Paid?

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages

    People, mostly our youth, often idolize sport stars as successful citizens, and, in turn, those same youths mimics them in various aspects of the sport star’s life, setting a dangerous precedent for our malleable youth. For example, Michael Vick, a quarterback in the NFL (he is still, to this day, in the NFL), still receives pay from NFL franchises despite being charged with a felony offence by the federal authorities for participating and managing dog fights and dog executions. Vick did end up pleading guilty to the charges of managing and participating in illegal dog-fighting matches, yet he continues to play in the league. This essay has already discussed how wealth is often correlated to a person’s ethos, so it is not farfetched to think that youth would look up to him. Morally, is it OK to allow someone like Michael Vick to be a role model to our youth? This essay argues no, but as long as he receives is exorbitant amount of money from the NFL as salary, people will still see him as a figure of…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    This means that even though sport could in fact create unethical behavior, it can also be a source of personal development, and moral growth. This is especially true when combined with positive moral guidance from coaches and positive moral upbringings by parents. It is no secret that when young athletes feel safe and have fun playing sports, they will want to improve and develop their talents. By putting in effect these rules to keep the playing environment safe and free of abuse, these athletes will have more fun and will want to develop and increase their…

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Athletes Off the Field

    • 1778 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The life of an athlete has changed significantly over the years. Their salaries have increased along with their popularity. But possibly the most considerable change has been in the culture. It seems that every day on ESPN we here about another athlete getting in trouble. Society loves to put athletes up on this metaphorical pedestal, but they love even more to watch them fall off. Of course there are athletes that we can look up to as model citizens, but the group’s image as a whole is most definitely suffering. When it comes to athletes, there is a lot more to it than what is seen on the field. Growing up, sports are used to teach lessons of hard work, discipline, and most of all teamwork. These three attributes are useful on and off the field. But what happens when natural talent allows an individual to succeed without developing these attributes? This individual will prosper without ever learning the true meaning of sport. Natural ability can be a curse to most athletes. They take their talent for granted and do not set goals to become better. Natural talent can only take one so far before their lack of hard work, discipline, and teamwork turns into their downfall. The off-the-field life of an athlete is one of partying, spending absurd amounts of money, and run-ins with the law. The development of this lifestyle evidently begins in college and eventually affects most athletes’ professional careers in a way that usually leads to their demise.…

    • 1778 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dracula

    • 1481 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Gardiner, Judith Kegan., ed. Masculinity Studies & Feminist Theory: New Directions. New York: Columbia UP, 2002. Print.…

    • 1481 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    According to a recent study done by the European Physical Education Review (2005), only a small percentage of those high school students chose a sports figure as their role model. But, if a sports figure is chosen as a role model it is because that child is into the same sports that the sports figure is in.…

    • 531 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays