PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES: Cultural Icons or Social Anomalies?

• Author: SAILES, GARY

Is it fair to demand that athletes serve as role models?

"I AM NOT a role model! I'm a professional basketball player. I am paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents should be role models!" Charles Barkley uttered these words a few years back in a Nike commercial that stirred controversy across the country among fans and National Basketball Association players alike. His words drew criticism from players like David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs, who felt Barkley should step up and be accountable as a role model. He felt Barkley, as a celebrity and public figure in a highly visible sports league, was a role model whether he wanted to be or not. It was simply a matter of choice: Was he going to be a good one or a bad one? As a professional athlete, Barkley was a role model, whether he liked it or not. By contrast, Alan Iverson and Dennis Rodman, two of the NBA's so-called "bad boys," were silent, much to the delight, I am sure, of league commissioner David Stem.

In light of recent events in the nation's headlines, the most notable being the O.J. Simpson, Ray Lewis, and Ray Carruth murder and manslaughter cases, one has to wonder: Don't athletes get it? They make millions in their contracts, are adored by fans, and are the envy of almost every red-blooded male. Why would they do anything that would jeopardize that incredibly lucrative position in our society? The problem has gotten so seriously out of hand that the images of all athletes who participate in professional sports are in jeopardy. Hooligans, thugs, and druggies are familiar words used to describe today's professional athletes.

It doesn't stop there, however. The phenomenon extends to collegiate athletes as well. The 2000-01 University of Illinois men's basketball team, as a result of their aggressive play, was labeled by the press and some opponents as the "Bad Boys." They received complaints and comments about their "dirty" play from their last opponent, the University of Arizona, who defeated them in the Elite Eight round in the 2001 NCAA Tournament.

The problems surrounding the public image of professional athletes has become so apparently serious that the commissioners of the major leagues (NBA, National Football League, National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball) and the NCAA met to establish the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance. Their focus was to demand good citizenship from its participating athletes. Stem said, "You mimic behavior, good and bad...