I was thinking about this the other day and I just wanted to throw out this theory for what it's worth and get others' take on it.
There's been much buzz this season about Dante Stallworth, Plaxico Burress, Michael Vick and their off-field troubles. Should they play? Are their penalties appropriate? (both in the league and with the law) Who wants to work with them with tarnished images? and so on.
I've always understood professional sports to be entertainment. ESPN (for goodness sakes) stands for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. So while they are athletes who are talented and good at what they do, they are here to entertain us. This is where the double standard comes into play. Lindsay Lohan, Robert Downey Jr., Drew Barrymore, and Mel Gibson (just to name a few) have all had issues with substance abuse and very public run-ins with the law. I never hear people talk about them in the same vein: should they be allowed to act again? Were their penalties stiff enough? Should the stuidos cease to work with them? etc. These people are entertainers too.
Do we hold athletes to a higher standard? If so, why? What makes them more of a moral compass than other entertainers? When you boil it all down, each one of these people is getting paid millions of dollars to entertain us. Why the contrast? No wrong answers. Just want to hear your thoughts (and thanks!)
2009-08-23T15:26:52Z
Michael - you bring up a good point about Ozzy biting the head off of a live bat. How SICK is that? He still performs. He still has a record deal.
Personally, I'd argue that youth DO look up to actors, actresses and singers as much as professional athletes. Both groups have a huge responsibility to be good, law-abiding citizens.
Colonel - you bring up a good point as well. Both athletes and actors make a gross amount of money doing what they love. Why are they judged differently?
Micheal W2009-08-23T09:58:45Z
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WOW I think your right. In 1980 Ozzy Osborne bit the head off of a live dove while on stage at a concert and two years later he did the same thing to a bat....How come that topic isn't coming up?He was given a show after that and was the spokesperson for pepsi. Matt Jones was caught with cocaine and put out of the league.Was it the right move? YES!!!...How come people like Lohan can still make movies and get paid without the public ripping into them and Jones can not?.........
Maybe, but athletes get more of a role model status and are rarely punished when signs of criminal behavior manifest.
Let's face it, nobody considers Lindsay Lohan, Robert Downey Jr., et all, role models. They entertain people, nothing more. Nobody wants to be like them, although they want to be famous. And Lohan, Downey, Drew Barrymore, and others, have harmed mainly themselves with their drug problems.
Athletes, on the other hand, all too often harm *others* There was that guy at the University of Nebraska who had a bad rep for abusing girlfriends but was never benched and was drafted by an NFL team. Michael Vick ran an illegal enterprise in which he himself took part in the "execution" of underperforming dogs.
Yes, athletes entertain people, too. But they also have role model status, unlike many other entertainers.
Because a lot of athletes are often looked up to. Just to name a few, Randy Moss, Ray Lewis, Brian Dawkins, even Terrell Owens.
It's the outstanding players in the Professional Leagues that are most often under the spot light because they stand out so much. That is why they are often looked up to obviously. When they do wrong it is such a ... oh how do I put this.. disappointment. Many many young athletes want to be just like them and to see them disobey the law or get in trouble is never a good thing, not just for them but for anyone.
Mel Gibson, Lindsay Lohan and all of them are entertainers but not role models, they are just pretty people who made it big. They are not held to any standards besides keep it PG - 13 on TV while most don't even do that. They aren't role models because besides young pre teens, no one really wants to grow up to be them. While they would like to be as successful, they don't want to be exactly like them.
Make sense?
Good question.
edit: Also a thing I wanted to point out, a perfect example of being Biased at it's best. Thanks for the definition Stan. Stay out of the football section if you don't know Football, thanks.
Well, as a woman and a Biologist, I'd say in the animal kingdom there's a pecking order. The fit male lion gets his pick and he'll choose the healthiest females. The lower placed males and females take what they can get. The beta(etc) females will mate with as many males as she can, since she doesn't have the alpha male's protection. This way, so many males (inferior) will bring her the odd tidbit and think her offspring is his. It's survival. In humans, it's similar, but the fit lion may actually be a fat balding rich man and instead of a healthy alpha female or females, he may choose a surgically enhanced phoney. I suppose the point I'm getting at, is humans have animal instincts, but they are muddled by the veneer of society and greed. A typical woman wanting a father for her offspring will tend to look for qualities such as healthy, tall, well educated/strong and with good bi-lateral symmetry. A typical man (by this, I mean of course a typical heterosexual man) will also be attracted to good bi-lateral symmetry (a sign of good health) shiny hair, bright eyes, good teeth aswell as the more obvious female attributes. Then of course there's the whole smell and taste thing, ah it's mighty complex and I don't know whether I've made things worse! On the whole, men don't like to think their mate is the local bike, if she's pure, she won't be able to criticise his "performance". Men are prone to exaggeration about how many women they've slept with. We females don't want a virgin, we want an experienced man and we lie about how many lovers we've had, don't we girls?
I think the difference is the connection between pro teams, college teams and merchandising. Part of the prestige of the NFL is the fact that it is full of college graduates. These athletes make money off of endorsements because of their all- American reputations. On top of that an athlete also has to maintain the good name of his alma mater. Hollywood celebrities don't bear the weight of representing a franchise city, Nike, Reebok, and the big-time university that they came from in the first place. Their problems are viewed as having a more negligible effect because of that.