Response: Athletes and the Fall from Grace

This is in response to Leah's post 'Athletes and the Fall from Grace
http://popculturedisciple.blogspot.com/2011/03/athletes-and-fall-from-grace.html

Great post! I agree with you in that the worshipping of sports figures as “gods” can lead to the undesirable fall from grace. Athletes are humans too. Olympic athletes are people who live next to you. . . or sit next to you in class. Although there is the possibility that these people may make mistakes and these errors in judgment will likely be made public, I don’t think idolizing sports figures is such a bad thing. They represent very important values – hard work, determination, persistence and the list goes on. In the overwhelmingly obese North America that we live in today, I believe these athletes can also help promote healthy, active lifestyles.

In response to your original post, Marica (above) suggested that athletes who take performance enhancing drugs may do so to fulfill the image that fans place upon them. I would have to disagree with this. I don’t think athletes engage in banned practices to enhance performance to meet the expectations of fans; I believe they do so for their own selfishness and greed. If an athlete claimed to take banned substances or engage in illegal performance-enhancing practices as a result of their fans’ expectations, I would have to say it is more likely that it is the result of an athlete’s in own skewed perceptions of fan expectations. Expectations from fans are inevitable. If a person is competing in professional leagues, as unfortunate as it may be, they have become mere commodities that can be traded or sold.

This discussion of athletes as role models reminds me of last week’s talk about musicians as role models. If I were to compare both groups, I would have to say that on average, athletes are more positive role models for the general public than most pop stars or rap artists. What both groups have in common is that they all chose to be in the professions they are in. They worked hard for their dreams knowing full-well that they would be public figures. If they are willing to remain in their professions, they must all accept the fact that the public viewing them as role models is unavoidable. By accepting this, they should act accordingly based on what kind of person they would like to be perceived as. Too often, the mistakes people make are justified under the notion that “they are human and all humans make mistakes.” Yes, they are human. But no, they must understand that as professional athletes, should they make mistakes, the world will know about it.