'Athletes Stand As Role Models, Like It Or Not'

Because sports are very important to many people, and have been since the days of the Romans, there is much pride and honor in sports; however, there is something that has tainted the image of sports and athletes alike:

Samuel Freedman uses rhetoric to call white American sports fan to attention. Although it is only a four page article, Freedman effectively uses the three main rhetorical techniques of pathos, ethos, and logos. By appealing to all aspects of the readers analytical senses, this helps Freedman strongly portray his message for justice in the sports community for not only black athletes, but for anyone of any race or background.

Throughout the history of America’s pastime, baseball has continually battled scandals and controversies. From the 1919 “Black Sox” scandal to the current steroid debate, baseball has lived in a century of turmoil. While many of these scandals affected multiple players and brought shame to teams, none have affected a single player more than the 1980’s Pete Rose betting scandal. Aside from the public humiliation he brought his family and the Cincinnati Reds, nothing has done more to hurt Pete Rose than his lifetime ban from baseball making him ineligible for hall of fame. While many are for and against putting Pete Rose in the hall of fame, the four ethical theories, Kantianism, Utilitarianism, Egoism, and Ethical Realism, each have their

Not only has the media created celebrity heroes they have made then seem untouchable. For example, Ray Lewis superstar linebacker of the champion ship team Baltimore Ravens. Lewis portrayed as a staunch, Christian, and an example for other to follow. This stands in contrast to the same person who was charged with homicide in 2000 after a club brawl in Atlanta left two men dead (Bisciotti,S 2013). The charges against Lewis were ultimately reduces as part of a plea deal. Families of the victims received over one million dollars in compensation from Lewis. Lewis has been a role model since this incident. It goes to prove that although everyone can change their lives, the label of hero, is too readily dished out to athletes and sports figures.

Athletes go through the good times and the bad times throughout their years. It makes you wonder how some of the athletes we see today are so great at what they can accomplish during a game, event, career, and so on. Are the best of the best athletes that everyone knows about or hears about doing some sort of a pedestal? Are they choosing to take them? Or are they encouraged by the people? William Moller effectively uses the rhetorical appeals of pathos to support his argument that, “We, the public, place the best athletes on pedestals, gods on high.”

Walter Camp, a former football player and coach of Yale University boasts of amateurism’s ethical superiority in his book, Walter Camp’s Book of College Sports. He states that it is not gentlemanly to compete for money; that satisfaction and glory should be sufficient rewards for victory. Camp reasons that there is no honor in making money off your athletic ability because gentleman compete for the sake of competing and for love of the game. Upper-class Americans rallied behind this notion of amateurism, but not because they morally agreed with the idea.

Ricardo Kaka, Zindine Zidane, these are the names of two legendary soccer players who represent the polarized sides of a very diverse spectrum of player attitudes, behaviors, and perspectives. Each player demonstrates a very high level of skill and determination that has brought them fans from across the globe, however one has conducted himself to a higher standard following respect and demonstrating fairness and honorable behaviors, whereas the other has acted disgracefully on multiple occasions and has sealed himself into the infamous side of the history books. These ideals must be reviewed and analyzed in order to understand what we have become as audiences, and what we venerate in society. Will we promote ethics or immorality? I believe these reflections can reveal a great sum about how we conduct ourselves and how we truly regard ethics in sports.

Black student-athletes are taught to value sports over academics at a young age because it is seen as the “only way out”. Black student-athletes are heralded for their athletic prowess from middle school up, so they begin to focus less on their education and more on their sport. Unfortunately, so do the teachers. Black student-athletes are more often than not just given passes, as schools value what their athletic abilities could do for them over the academic success of the athlete. Even normal black students can be seen the same way just because of the perception that they might be an athlete. The sad truth is that the athletes that don’t make it to the professional level are left without the education needed to be successful.

(McCarthy 1). Athletes live to succeed in their sport and be the best of the best. Without having their sport they would have no money and no happiness. How an athlete is treated on the field should not be based upon how they’ve acted off the field. Athlete or not everyone makes a mistake in life and they should not be treated lesser than others or have it ruin the rest of their lives.

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

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

Throughout generations, social mobility has become something everyone wants to attain in their lifetime. Through social mobility comes a better and more stable life. There are many ways to achieve maximum mobility, which include getting a higher education and reducing risk in your life. There are also a lot of myths towards this concept that has been portrayed by the media and one of the myths is the social mobility gained by a person playing a sport. Americans in today's world believe that sports are the path we should take to have full financial and social flexibility. Examples leading to this conclusion are obvious as we see kids from poor areas escalate their nobility and capital through their abilities to compete in sports. From the million-dollar contracts and endorsement deals, the ideology behind being an athlete is that your social mobility will rise, but many statistics will prove otherwise. Although it is possible for athletes to gain revenue and fame, the overall ideology of sports of gaining maximum social flexibility from being involved in a sport is a myth.

"Politics has come to be considered not only inappropriate in the arena of sports, but actually antithetical to it," Zirin says. "We want so much to see sports solely as an arena of play, not seriousness. But here's the thing, this can cheapen not only the greatness and relevance of sports to us as a society, but also the courage of the athletes" (The Nation). The pursuit of fame, wealth and status can blind the human conscious, which is why it is important for us to encourage athletes to speak their minds. As a nation, we should not silence the athletes, because it is the truly courageous athletes who have the audacity to stand up when it’s not popular. Sports should be used as a platform for a certain kind of politics: militarism,

Like female athletes, African Americans have had a difficult time getting equal treatment and representation for their successes by the media. African Americans were thought to have a feeling of hate towards others, as displayed in the classic feature, Remember the Titans, “Look at them, they hate us, they’ll always hate us.” In today’s sports arena, African American athletes are represented in their sports’ categories in a much larger group than in the past. However, they are still struggling to have the same equalization as their teammates in the media’s representation of their talents and skills. A typical stereotype of the African American by the media is their depiction of them having more brawn than brain. For example, Luke Walton of the Los Angeles Lakers, for example, is a white male whom commentators often commend for his high basketball IQ when he makes plays, but often fault for his insufficient physical ability when he doesn’t. African American teammates of Walton’s, in contrast, find their “skills” praised when they execute well and their “mental errors” blamed for failures to execute. Sports-related socialization of this discriminatory type can perpetuate stereotypes generation after generation.

Athletes can be good role models in terms of demonstrating how to be professional. The