Posted: 09/05/07

Pros and cons
For young athletes, the right role model is hard to come by

Justin Veiga | executive editor
jveiga@smcvt.edu

Within a one-week span, the National Football League featured three tremendous hits.  These weren’t, however, bone-crushing tackles made on unsuspecting receivers.  Instead, the painful blows came at the expense of the league’s already beaten image. 

The most resounding embarrassment came on Monday, Aug. 27, as Atlanta Falcons’ star Michael Vick pled guilty to federal charges related to dog fighting.  He faces up to five years in prison and has been suspended indefinitely from the NFL.  Nike has cut its sponsorship ties with the quarterback, and on NFL.com, Vick jerseys can no longer be purchased.

Days after Vick’s plea, Chicago Bear Lance Briggs fled the scene of an accident involving his Lamborghini.  And to cap off the week for the NFL, Patriots favorite Rodney Harrison admitted to authorities that he used Human Growth Hormone (HGH) during his rehabilitation.  Harrison has subsequently been suspended for the first four games of the season as HGH violates the league’s drug policy.

The NFL’s public image has gotten so bad due to these and other player conduct issues that league officials have turned to Madison Avenue for help.  As reported by Stuart Elliot in The New York Times on Thursday, Aug. 30, the league has started an advertising campaign that highlights certain players and their positive behaviors.  Matt Hasselbeck, Willie McGinest and rookie Brady Quinn will all be featured in the ads, which aim to demonstrate certain player’s constructive actions on and off the field.

“The NFL’s idea is to counter the outcry over the criminal behavior of some players — not by apologizing for the misdeeds of a few, but by shining a spotlight on what is presented as the good behavior of the many,” Elliot writes.

But what are our nation’s youth paying more attention to?  The bold headlines continually read each morning on “Sportscenter” and discussed repeatedly on every TV and radio sports program, or the fact that Matt Hasselbeck still reads to his young children?

It’s unfortunate that it takes advertisements, the brainchildren of marketing minds, to mend one league’s image and remove the spotlight from the bad seeds that have taken root on the 50-yard line.               

For adolescents, deciphering the actions of their famous athletic heroes is becoming increasingly difficult due to the fact that as player misconduct continues, sports media coverage amplifies such issues. Though it may be only a handful of superstars attracting the negative attention, continuous exposure of these athletes and their behavior reinforces the public opinion that finding a responsible professional athlete to serve as a child’s role model isn't easy.  Parents must pay close attention to whom their child idolizes at home and imitates on the playing field. 

In Atlanta, a city already notorious for crime, Vick had been viewed as a positive role model for kids growing up in dire neighborhood environments.  He matured in a Virginia town notorious for drug use and gangs.  He served as an example to others that it is possible to survive a less than ideal childhood and exude greatness.   Now, the man once hailed as a city’s idol, is currently that city’s infamy.

The truth may be that we live in a sports-saturated media.  But such a culture exists because of the values that Americans place on athletics and competition, especially for our youth.  Today’s professional athletes are fully aware of this.  It is critical that they understand, now more than ever, the microscope is fixated on them.  And lined up behind that high-powered scope, peering through the lens, are the millions of young athletes hoping to one day be in their shoes.