I Am Not A Role Model

As I sat and watched the "Three Stooges Convention" on Capitol Hill, I couldn't help but notice that somebody was missing. No, it wasn't Barry Bonds. It wasn't Larry, Curly, or Moe either. I was looking for Charles Barkley. Not because I think Sir Charles is a steroid user, but who better to stand in front of Congress and proclaim, "I am not a role model." Yes, we've been down this road before.

Every time somebody like myself says "athletes should not be role models" ultimately somebody will respond with, "Yeah but they are." Fair enough. Yet if that’s the case, we need to identify the differences between being a role model and idolization. It's one thing to wear a Barry Bonds jersey or hang a poster on your wall because he's a great player. However, when your child starts making crucial life decisions relative to anything Barry Bonds does, in my opinion you've lost touch with reality.

Professional athletes like Bonds, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tiger Woods etc. These guys have been catered to their entire lives, it's a totally different lifestyle, a different world altogether. The choices they make are based on a false sense of reality. Is it reasonable to say that this is the type of person your child should be modeling himself after?

Lets be honest. Professional athletes get paid to perform, to entertain, period. To expect anything more of them is your own damn fault. I find it absolutely disgusting that a parent would stand before Congress and point the finger at Barry Bonds, or Mark McGwire, because their child killed himself after abusing steroids.

In fact, I'll take it a step further, I think any parent who does put tragedy like that on the shoulders of a professional athlete owes that athlete an apology.

Since when did a professional athletes become a guidance counselor? I mean, our media makes a habit out of highlighting the antics of a player like Michael Vick yet we still choose to make them our heroes?!?! Read the room. It's amazing that we expect Barry Bonds to be a role model when for years the media has declared war on his character.

Bonds is arrogant, Bonds is a jerk, Bonds has his own reclining chair and doesn't talk to his teammates. And now this, Bonds is cheating and using illegal drugs.

"Nahhh, really?!?!"



The media drags this guys' name through the sewer, yet when the "bad guy" screws up, he's now responsible for some kid who died because that kids mother and father failed as parents?

I find myself asking this often but I'll ask it again, at what point does common sense come into play? Am I to believe we are now living in a society that says it's OK to pawn your kids off on Randy Moss when parenting gets a little too complicated? It's Jose Canseco's fault because you as an adult don't know how to communicate with your own child?


The sports world has always been filled with players who demonstrated a total lack of character but we just ignore it. How many adults idolized Mickey Mantle when they were a kid? Was he a good role model? Should every parent who lost a father to alcoholism stand before Congress and blame Mickey Mantle? What about Babe Ruth? Can you honestly tell me Ruth was a good role model considering the choices he made off the field?

The list goes on and on.

Don't even get me started on Kobe Bryant.

Kobe is a perfect example of why athletes should never be role models! This guy played Texas Hold 'Em with the entire world, went "all in" on the river and everybody folded.

I can hear Kobe's fan club now, "He was acquitted JR! Kobe didn't do anything." Yeah, because cheating on your beautiful wife makes for a great role model, doesn't it? You see that’s the thing, we are always making excuses for these guys even when somebody gets killed! Which might explain the kid at "ARCO Arena" over the weekend wearing a #32 O.J. Simpson throwback jersey. Now there's a role model, right? If the glove doesn't fit...



On November 19th, 2004, we witnessed an event that emphasized the growing animosity between players and fans. It was a game between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons but it will forever be remembered as, "When Role Models Attack."

It was the end of the 4th period when Ron Artest flagrantly fouled Ben Wallace and a fight broke out. A fight much like the typical NBA fight. A lot of pushing and shoving, players exchanging words, millionaires holding each other back.

Just when things were cooling down, some drunk yo yo in the crowd decides he's going to grenade a plastic cup of ice towards Ron Artest.

Now granted, this moron probably didn't really mean to nail Artest, it was a fluke shot. He was probably thinking something like, "Hey guys, watch this cool move...."

Needless to say his ice bomb drilled Artest right in the head and it was on! Wrong guy. Ron Artest is probably the last guy in sports you want to hit in the face with a cup of anything. It was the equivalent of closing your eyes, firing a hard boiled egg into a room full of boxers and drilling Mike Tyson in the face. You hear me? Well, probably not considering your ear just got bitten off.

Next thing you know Ron Artest is bolting into the crowd and everybody knows what happened next. Lawsuits, suspensions, fines, fat Detroit Piston fans running on the court thinking they are Tommy Hearns.




Like it or not, this is all on the fans. We created this monster and now we are looking for someone to blame. "Damn it! I paid 45 dollars for a ticket, 8 dollars for a hot dog and 10 bucks for a rubber chicken. You owe me Barry Bonds!""

It's funny how we always want these athletes to be accountable for their actions but we as fans are never accountable for our own. We created this. If you want somebody to blame don't point the finger at Bonds or Jason Giambi, point the finger at Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NFL. These are the organizations handing out ridiculous multi million dollar contracts to young men before they ever step foot on the field, before they've matured. You don't think that impacts the athletes' perception of reality? So why are we surprised when Allen Iverson doesn't understand why he should show up for practice? "Practice?! We talkin' bout practice?!"

Yeah Allen, that’s exactly what we are talking about, practice.

That usually comes along with responsibility. Why are we surprised when Ricky Williams walks out on his teammates because he's decided his role models are Cheech and Chong? Why are we surprised when Tracy McGrady says it's hard to give 110% all the time? Hey, at least he's being honest. I wouldn't have proper perspective either when the NBA has already hooked up the brand new, pimped out, 2005 Cadillac Escalade on 28 inch rims.

110 percent? No way, not with Vanessa, Candy Lips, and Tatianna waiting for me at home. Shit, I just built a 12 million dollar recording studio in my pool room, you want me to practice? Man I got a rap album to record, 45 pit bulls to feed and hoes in different area codes.

Times have changed. NBA players are now 18-19 years old with huge contracts and no education what so ever. We're talking about 6'10 high school kids being scouted by the pro's because spending 4 years in college is way too risky. Would you risk tearing your ACL when millions of dollars are waiting for you on the table? I wouldn't.

Former Portland Trailblazer Sebastian Telfair signs a 14 million dollar deal with Adidas, a kid straight out of high school. That’s not reality, that’s not a role model, that’s the next episode of MTV Cribs!

Some of these kids are coming straight out of the ghetto with a posse 25 deep following close behind. When you start dumping millions of dollars into the laps of uneducated young adults, kids who have been poor their entire lives, how can you honestly believe or even expect them to be good role models?

Yes, players have to take responsibility for their actions but we are the ones who let our children idolize them. We are the ones who pay for season tickets. We are the ones shoving 8 dollar "Dodger Dogs" down our holes in the quest to be entertained. We made that choice. Last time I checked nobody was banging down Bill Gates' door expecting him to baby sit your kids because you just purchased Microsoft Windows. Keep it real. Professional athletes don't owe the fans a damn thing other than hard work and entertainment value.

Oh, but Barry Bonds "cheated" and we demand an admission of guilt. It's time people start putting things in proper perspective. If you really believe steroids is a huge problem in baseball then why not go to the source of the problem? Barry Bonds took steroids because they made him better. The better he is the more we pay to watch him. How is that any different than Edward Norton doing steroids to play the part of a skin head in the movie American History X?

This is the entertainment business.

I also love how Congress gets involved when it's baseball. Never mind that the NBA is loaded with blunt smoking gang bangers, we have bigger fish to fry. The integrity of " America's Past Time" is in question. How patriotic. Something tells me this whole steroid scandal might have had something to do with janitor Bush on his quest to clean up America and steer your attention away from "Operation Mannipulate The American People."

Now if you don’t mind, I'm going to go purchase my San Quentin prisoner #28967 Charles Manson throw back jersey and continue to hunt for Steve Bartman.

JR