David Moulton: Job description for Olympic champion swimmer doesn't include being a role model
naplesnews.com
This just in, Charles Barkley was right.
Long before Sir Charles ran his mouth about everything, lost millions gambling and got his DUI, Charles Barkley looked into a TV camera and said: “I am not a role model”.
So why is it that we still expect our athletes to act like one?
They are not role models. They are ballplayers. Entertainers. They perform, not on a stage but on a field, court, rink or, in the latest case, a pool.
Fame and wealth are not qualities that define a role model.
Michael Phelps is not a role model. He is a swimmer. The greatest swimmer of all-time, but not a role model.
We need to stop expecting our athletes to be role models. Why? Because we don’t demand that the people who should be role models act like it. So how hypocritical is it of us to expect that a bunch of selfish, egotistical, singular of purpose strangers be to our kids what we are apparently admitting we can’t be?
By the way, I’m saying selfish, egotistical and singular of purpose in a good way. An elite athlete almost always has to be this way to become great.
They have to be selfish in that at some point in their young lives, they broke away from the pack and put normalcy on the back burner to pursue their dream of being a pro.
Do you know what percentage of kids make it to the highest level of their sport? Far less than 0.1 percent.
And then there is the case of Michael Phelps. Think about it. The ridiculous training schedule required day after day, month after month, year after year necessary to even pursue eight gold medals, nevermind win them.
He is not a role model. He is a swimmer. He had no life outside of swimming. He left home, hung out with only a few people a thousand miles away for four years and trained, trained and then did some more training.
This was all after his DUI at 19.
Is this really the life you want for your kids? Really?
I’m not knocking Phelps. I’m knocking us. Let the Michael Phelpses of the world be what they are: elite athletes.
Period.
Just because they get some endorsements, it does not make them role models. Just because someone becomes a “celebrity,” it does not make them a role model.
Do some athletes become role models? Of course. Tiger Woods, Cal Ripken Jr., Warrick Dunn and others have taken it upon themselves to try and be a role model. Tim Tebow is following this same path.
They have chosen to hold themselves to the highest of standards and ideals. They are challenging themselves to match their greatness on the field with a standard and purpose to life off of it. They are remarkable.
They are the exceptions. That’s what makes them far more special than the rest. To expect the same from the rest of the pack is foolish.
It was not always this way? Bull. Babe Ruth was a mess. Joe DiMaggio was a rude, loner of an absentee father. You want to be like Mike? Jordan cheated on his wife and had a gambling problem. There’s not enough print in this paper to go through the list of star athletes and their shortcomings.
But they were great players. Some of them inspired us. At times they may have even brought us to tears with their achievements. Great.
If Mark Messier bumped into me on the street, I might tear up as I bored him with a tale of what the Rangers winning the Stanley Cup in 1994 meant to me. But Mark Messier my role model? No way. That man was orphaned at 4, had a seventh-grade education, didn’t read much, couldn’t break 80 and stood 5-foot-3.
In the end, Messier and all the rest are entertainers. Period.
Parents are role models. In my case, it was my grandfather because my dad wasn’t up to the job. And it’s in the job description. In no other job is it required. Not teacher, not cop, not even president. But if you are a parent, then you are your kids’ role models.
Do you really want it any other way?
Would the world be a better place if we held everyone up to the same standards we want are athletes to live up to? Sure.
But until we insist that parents and presidents be role models, on the hypocritical scale of 1-10, where do you think it ranks that we demand it of Michael Phelps?
I’d say 13.
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David Moulton is co-host of "Miller and Moulton in the Afternoon." The radio show airs weekdays 3-7 p.m. on WWCN/AM 770. His columns appear in the Naples Daily News print edition every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. |
