Are Professional Athletes Good Role Models Essay

A role model is a person whose behavior, example, or success is or can be emulated by others, especially younger people. Professional athletes

This brings a negative impact on kids, because they see these things and want to become athletes so they put their all into athletics, and forget how to become human beings in the real world, for example an article written by NPR, “26 percent of U.S. parents whose children in high school play sports hope their child will become a professional athlete one day. Among families with household incomes of less than $50,000 annually, the number is 39 percent. According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, only a tiny percentage of high school athletes actually go on to play professionally — roughly 1 in 168 high school baseball players will get drafted by a Major League Baseball team, and just 1 in 2,451 men's high school basketball players will get drafted by a National Basketball Association team. (NPR, 2015)” based off these percentages, it is harder to get to pros, and as a kid, seeing these athletes in all this fame, isn’t showing them, that likely hood of them becoming a pro athlete is slim, but being an athlete isn’t the only way to have these

Heroics is used very broadly and can consist of many different aspects of ones= feats or achievements. While researching this topic, I have found that there are numerous ways to describe a hero. What makes a hero? I have determined in my opinion, that the word Ahero@ consists of ones accomplishments, actions or service that leads to the betterment of others. From my definition of the word, exceptional athletes do have the potential to be heroes.

According to biography.com, Lebron is a role model because he encourages people to play basketball. Lebron also leads little kids or teens to follow their dreams. He goes to schools and talks about basketball to kids. Lebron James also teaches kids to not listen to others but to go with your heart. In conclusion these are some reasons why Lebron is a role

     Michigan State University's report, "Sportsmanship: Building Character or 'Characters'?" on the Youth Sportsman Institute webpage, explains the basic idea of how the role of children's participation in sports affects their sportsmanship. The report gives examples of how good sportsmen, and bad sportsmen are viewed by society. The Youth Sports Institute says, "participation is viewed as a double-edged sword that may have either negative or positive effects on the child"("Sportsmanship",1) and that "the critical factor in determining whether the youth sports experience has a positive or negative effect on children is the quality of adult leadership"("Sportsmanship, 3).

hear one mention of that in the news. They are making us believe that all

Lebron James and Freddy Adu are both young athletes and with millions in their pockets with a countless number of endorsement contracts. Whether it is high school athletes skipping college and discontinuing the development of their education for millions of dollars, or teenagers signing contracts with businesses for massive amounts of money, youth sports programs are changing rapidly. However, American high school athletes are not financially, physically, or mentally prepared to tackle and endure the pressures of professional sports.

Every child at some point in their lives dream about becoming a rock star, doctor or an astronaut, but the career that stands out the most is becoming a professional athlete. Why? One reason could be the ever increasing media coverage on each individual sport with certain channels devoted for just that particular sport, keeping viewers updated and thirsting to get out and play. Another could be the ease of getting out in the backyard as a kid to shoot the basketball, throw a football, or hit a baseball because it is harder to perform heart surgery or fly to the moon when you're only a child. With that being said; it is easy to look up to a professional athlete and put your heart and soul into them wearing

It starts from when kids are young are taught by parents and coaches to be tough, and that’s with great reason, you should be tough, you should be a able to take a hit and get back up that’s part of the game, but the problem lies within education teaching kids when they need to be tough and when they should take a step back and realize there is a serious problem. The coaches used to be no better, they didn’t have to have sort of training Though this has changed in the last few years. While I began to briefly search around on this topic I found a interesting quoute from Brett Favre who is a soon to be hall of fame quarterback, he played 20 years in the NFL and set many passing records. He was recently asked if he had a son would he let him play in the NFL, and this was his response “I would be real leery of him playing football.” Added Favre: “In some respects, I’m almost glad I don’t have a son because of the pressures he would face. Also the physical toll that it could possibly take on him” Brett Favre is not alone there are countless other players that agree they would not try to avoid letting their children play football.

Many people have a person that they look up to and who encourages them. It's someone who I think doesn't give up and gets back up when they fall down, who has an impact to other people around them and they work for what they have earned. A person that is a role model to me is a man named Kobe Bryant. He is a basketball player that accomplished many things in his career. He was also born on August 23, 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Biography Today 44). He is someone who overtime has shown persistence and courage throughout his career in basketball. Kobe Bryant was a role model and inspiring basketball player that had a great legacy in the NBA.

Everyday today's youth are asked what they want to be when they grow up. Some say teachers, firemen, police officers and a large response to that question is a professional athlete. Something that all these professions have in common is that they are all role models to children. Firemen, teachers, police officers have an easy job at doing this; they are after all the people that save children, teach children and protect children. But professional athletes on the other hand have a difficult task assigned to them when it comes to being role models. Professional athletes are not given an option as to be a role model or not. Just because they have a special gift does not make them have

True role models are those who possess the qualities that we would like to have. Role models are those who have affected us in ways that influence us to be better people. They are people who others imitate, emulate or look to for guidance. There are good role models who inspire greatness in others and bad role models who are bad influences. There are even anti-role models, pegged by the media as "bad girls" or "bad boys" who serve as good examples of what not to do if you want to become a successful, respected person. With the majority of my time spent as an athlete throughout high school and college, I believe athletes should pose as role models.

The correlation of playing competitive sports at college level and self esteem are measured. Subjects were given the Barksdale self esteem questionnaire to fill out and levels of self esteem are measured by scores out of one hundred. The subjects are then separated into categories determined by gender and whether they played sports at the college level. The results indicated that the elite athletes have a higher self esteem than non athletes. The survey also revealed that women have a slightly higher self esteem than men. These findings agree with our hypothesis that athletes will have a higher level of self esteem than non athletes will.

of their peers. The negative effect this has on the athletes is obvious. They become

Practicing a sport can be highly beneficial to children, until it’s taken too far. Often called training now, children as young as six years old are participating in sports that require too much time. At that age, sports should be something fun to do and a favorable source of physical activity. However, whenever an athlete shows a hint of a talent, child exploitation occurs (Bean 10234). Between the ages of 7-12, adolescents should be learning identity, motives, beliefs, and values, but nearly all athletes are practicing 5 days a week with games every Saturday. This leaves no time or energy for hanging out with friends, homework, family time, and relaxation. Dr. Shane Murphy reports that if a coach or trainer sees talent in a young child, immediately they are convincing the