Who do your kids look up to? Do they look up to a superstar, or a drug addict? In todays world we need to make sure we are careful of who our kids idolize as many athletes make poor moral decisions as they gain fame. Our kids should look up to role models based on their life choices, not based on the number of Sport Illustrated covers they are on. Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, and Alex Rodriguez are all current day examples of how athletes can reflect a negative image to kids. Athletes should not be role models for today’s generation of kids because many make poor ethical choices, they often don’t worry about who their actions are impacting, and the kids look up to them without realizing that they do.
One of the major problems of athletes being …show more content…
This is a bigger problem than ever before because over time, our media outlets are getting larger and spreading information faster to everyone. This highlights the moral flaws that many athletes have. Some argue that athletes boost confidence through sports and bring good ethics to kids lives. Laura Williams said,"One of the reasons girls should play sports is for the boost in confidence they receive, according to the TeensHealth website. You can see this confidence in action when watching professional athletes. On the field and off the field, athletes embody a sense of confidence in themselves and their team." (Williams). The fact that athletes encourage kids to be confident in playing sports is far outweighed by the drug use that professional athletes demonstrate. Its said that "If you were given a performance enhancing substance and you would not be caught and win, would you take it?". 98% of the athletes responded "Yes". The more chilling question was: "If you were given a performance enhancing substance and you would not be caught, win all competitions for 5 years, then die, would you take it?". More than 50% said "Yes"(Baron). This explains how many kids ethics are not where they should be because they base them off of their athlete role models’ whose first priority is always to be the best athlete they can …show more content…
This has been a big focus on leagues today because they know many kids look up to these athletes and want to be like them. The steroids or other drugs that they take, help them put up big numbers and become bigger stars in the face of the media. People want success,”Fans just want to be in attendance when Bonds breaks the record.”(McCallum 36). This if referring to the controversy regarding Barry Bonds becoming the home run king while under investigation for steroids.Kids are looking up to the numbers and records these athletes are breaking so much that they push aside the fact that they did it illegally. According to Dr. Hoffman, "In this study, approximately 20% of high school age males and females suggested that professional athletes do influence their decision to use AS...When students were asked whether AS use by professional athletes influenced their friends ' decisions to use AS, affirmative responses rose to nearly 50%... "(Hoffman). I think this is an insane statistic and a major problem with our society today. More than 50% of kids would admit that athletes have encouraged them to take Anabolic Steroids. Many researchers have said the amount of kids taking steroids are significantly lower, because steroid use is gradually narrowing. It’s stated that, "Early studies reported that adolescent AS [anabolic steroid] use ranged from 6 to 11%, but recent
One of the major problems of athletes being …show more content…
This is a bigger problem than ever before because over time, our media outlets are getting larger and spreading information faster to everyone. This highlights the moral flaws that many athletes have. Some argue that athletes boost confidence through sports and bring good ethics to kids lives. Laura Williams said,"One of the reasons girls should play sports is for the boost in confidence they receive, according to the TeensHealth website. You can see this confidence in action when watching professional athletes. On the field and off the field, athletes embody a sense of confidence in themselves and their team." (Williams). The fact that athletes encourage kids to be confident in playing sports is far outweighed by the drug use that professional athletes demonstrate. Its said that "If you were given a performance enhancing substance and you would not be caught and win, would you take it?". 98% of the athletes responded "Yes". The more chilling question was: "If you were given a performance enhancing substance and you would not be caught, win all competitions for 5 years, then die, would you take it?". More than 50% said "Yes"(Baron). This explains how many kids ethics are not where they should be because they base them off of their athlete role models’ whose first priority is always to be the best athlete they can …show more content…
This has been a big focus on leagues today because they know many kids look up to these athletes and want to be like them. The steroids or other drugs that they take, help them put up big numbers and become bigger stars in the face of the media. People want success,”Fans just want to be in attendance when Bonds breaks the record.”(McCallum 36). This if referring to the controversy regarding Barry Bonds becoming the home run king while under investigation for steroids.Kids are looking up to the numbers and records these athletes are breaking so much that they push aside the fact that they did it illegally. According to Dr. Hoffman, "In this study, approximately 20% of high school age males and females suggested that professional athletes do influence their decision to use AS...When students were asked whether AS use by professional athletes influenced their friends ' decisions to use AS, affirmative responses rose to nearly 50%... "(Hoffman). I think this is an insane statistic and a major problem with our society today. More than 50% of kids would admit that athletes have encouraged them to take Anabolic Steroids. Many researchers have said the amount of kids taking steroids are significantly lower, because steroid use is gradually narrowing. It’s stated that, "Early studies reported that adolescent AS [anabolic steroid] use ranged from 6 to 11%, but recent