Parents Should not Rely on Athletes as Role Models

As a result of the currently increasing broadcasting of sports, most parents are persuaded towards motivating their children to emulate athletes as they think it is right technique for encouraging them to work hard in school and other situations that require input of extra effort. This is because the parents look up to these athletes as possible role models whom their kids can emulate the attitude they portray while in the field or the court. What parents do not consider is that the attitude that these athletes portray while in the field might not be the same as what he or she would portray while outside the court. That is, the heroic achievement of these athletes exemplifies only a small fragment of their real nature or rather who they really are when not playing. Time and again, there is a huge reliance on parent on the positive image depicted athletes who are extremely competitive, however, parents feel betrayed and confused when the real nature of these heroes becomes a reality and cease to be role models. For instance, the assertion of Anthony Stalter regarding Mike Vick in the year 2001 whom he thought he would be the face of the NFL as he was an admirable and respectable athlete. Conversely, this turned out to be incorrect in that he did not know what Vick did when he is not in the field.

Evaluation

According to the article, the effort athletes input while in the court or the field is really convincing that they can be regarded as role models. Particularly, parents are the most victims of this situation in that every parent want the best of their children which make them encourage their children to emulate athletes based on the performances in the field. This article is quite informative in that it informs both the parents and kids about the risk of looking upon athletes as role models since most of them only put efforts and good attitude while in the field but when outside the field they are different people. According to me, I totally agree with the author since I personally do not have any information regarding most of the athletes’ lives outside the field however, I find myself relating to most of them because of their outstanding performances and competitive nature. For example, Anthony Stalter had greater hopes that Vick would be the face of NFL because his judgment was based on the image of Vick in the field and not after the whistles blow. But, on learning about how he spent his free time outside the field, it came to reality that it is not a good idea to rely on an athlete for a role model figure. More specifically, this article is extended to school children who are not yet sure of whom to rely on as their role models. As a writer, the reading has informed me of the importance of looking beyond what is known about someone to deduce the right inference