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A favorite blogger, Aaron Haspel, analogized between professional athletes to Roman emperors -- something I cannot resist. Prompted by the Kobe Bryant story, Aaron writes, in a piece called "Jock Apocalypse"
In one corner is the superstar modern athlete, the closest thing one finds today to a Roman Emperor, except without the responsibilities or risk of assassination. Tens of thousands cheer him at mass rallies. Children adorn their clothing with his name. (Hey, where's my "CALIGULA 44" Starter jersey?) Like Nero, he foists his art on an unsuspecting and indifferent public. He devotes his leisure to sexual excesses at which Tiberius would have blushed.I have never been able to understand this obsession with turning athletes into "role models." Roman emperors were quite conscious of their important roles, and were supposed to be role models. If they didn't uphold certain standards, they were often assassinated, and their bodies thrown into the Tiber.The superstar athlete has been surrounded since early adolescence with sycophants, handlers, agents, and coaches, all imparting the single message that, so long as he performs on the field, everything else will be taken care of. Kobe was playing in the NBA at an age when most of us are staggering home, retching, from our first kegger. As with the emperors, being protected from all of the consequences of one's decisions is a bad character factory, turning ordinary people into brutes and marginal ones into criminals.
....The athlete, like the emperor, is bound by the law mostly in theory.
But these athletes have no such real responsibilities, so why on earth would anyone want them to be role models?
And why only certain athletes, anyway?
What is the logic of saying that if you can hit baseballs out of the ballpark, children should imitate you, but if, on the other hand, the balls you hit are only golfballs, there is no such duty at large? Basketball, football, and baseball seem to be particular favorites for the role model mafia. Professional wrestling? Horse racing? Swimming, bicycling, golf? Forget it!
What's even crazier is the immunity conferred upon these athletes. If the goal is to require them to be role models, and role modeling is part of their job, then it would seem logical that when they run afoul of the rules and perform poorly as role models, they ought to be punished even more severely than the rest of us mortals. Otherwise, what lesson will the kids learn? That being a role model means you can get away with anything?
The larger question, of course, is why should anyone be a role model? Assuming for the sake of argument that children are animals of the primate variety (and thus learn only from imitation), then the appropriate role models for them are parents, and possibly those adults entrusted by parents to be role models. I am not a parent, but if I had a child I would not want him to be a mindless sheep looking for a leader, but someone who thought for himself. The idea that he would look up to a baseball player as a standard makes no sense at all -- unless his goal is to be a baseball player. And even then, the only
T. Rex
http://quinnell.us/sports/essay/role.html