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Here it is -
Two boys grow up together in country Victoria. They’re close friends throughout their childhood, but their lives take very different paths. One excels as a cricketer, a natural talent, and is picked up for the academy. The other has a remarkable ability for large scale design and becomes a highly paid architect. Both men go on to become one of the best in their chosen profession, however there is one significant difference – the cricketer is famous, the architect is not. The architect is highly respected, and is considered a role model for younger people in his company. The cricketer, however, is expected to be a role model for every young person in the country.
One night during the off season, the cricketer is out celebrating his mate the architect’s 25th birthday. He has a few drinks, and just as the night is wrapping up is confronted by a drunken man at the bar who begins verbally abusing him. The cricketer is wary of what will happen if he reacts so he tries to ignore him. But the drunk man becomes aggressive, and begins pushing and shoving. When the architect friend steps in to protect him, the drunk man takes a swing and punches him in the face.
Blinded by fury and fear for his friend, the cricketer forgets himself and aggressively pushes the drunk man, who falls over a table and passes out. The following day, headlines in the paper read “STAR CRICKETER DISGRACED IN DRUNKEN PUB BRAWL.” No-one has heard of the drunk man or the architect, and no-one ever will. But the cricketer is looking at disciplinary action from Cricket Australia and the International Cricket Council. The media slams him, saying that he has let down his fans and community. He is forced to apologise publicly, even though he knows he has done little wrong.
He never signed up to be a role model, society has demanded it of him.
This hypothetical situation is all too real for many of the sports stars we so admire. Unfortunately, double standards such as this still exist in our society. The expectation that sports people should also be role models to society is a ridiculous and unfair one, but one that has long been upheld. The issue has become more relevant in recent years as the power of the media is ever increasing. This means that whilst athletes are in fact supposedly better behaved than in the past, any misdemeanour, however large or small, is being reported in what is described as “the public interest.” The role of the media in this issue, as well as the expectation placed on young sports people, is something that cannot be ignored.
As highlighted in the introduction, sports people are people just like everyone else - they stuff up, they make errors of judgement, and some of them are just bad people. It’s just that they happen to be exceptionally good at something that we as Australians value. Sports stars need to be seen as nothing more than a cross section of society that represents both the good people, and the alleged “bad” people that exist in any profession, and indeed in society as a whole.
When a person without the burden of celebrity makes a mistake, it isn’t publicised. Sports stars are human beings, so why are the standards different for them as compared to doctors, shoemakers or barbers? A career in sport is a job, after all, just like any other. Yes, they should try to set a good example when on the field, and when they are on TV. But there has to be a line somewhere.
The media, the same people, who argue that sports people should be role models to society, feel the need to report when a famous sports star takes cocaine, relieves himself in an inappropriate place or has a domestic issue with their partner. The two ideas are simply non-cohesive. The only way that society finds out about this kind of activity is if the press reports it. How can they be bad role models if no-one ever finds out? It’s private information and it should be kept confidential. Sports people are paid to entertain, to earn a living, and to generate tourism and business for their city. That’s it.
There have been three cases in the AFL of late, surrounding footballers who have made mistakes, and, somewhat unfairly, paid dearly for them.
Carlton forward Brendan Fevola recently urinated on a pub window at 4am after a big night out. Here, a minor incident which would occur almost every weekend in Melbourne was publicised because a famous person was involved. It nearly cost Fevola his job.
Wayne Carey, one of football’s most controversial figures, has had his domestic and marital issues splashed all over the press because he was a superstar of his time. He is now a harrowed man who is allegedly too scared to leave the house. Then of course there’s Ben Cousins. The West Coast Eagles’ fall from grace has been an absolute picnic for the press, a thousand Christmases at once. Reportedly, Cousins abused drugs. He’s not the first person to do that, but because he is famous, he is now a man wrecked by the media. According to an article in the Herald Sun on the 21st of July 2006, Cousins had let the nation down because “He is a role model. It goes with the job. And he won't be a hero for ever”
How can it “go with the job?” He isn’t payed to sign autographs. He’s paid to play football. These are three cases in point which highlight the injustice and the double standards on which this principle operates. It is not right that these three men are hounded for being bad role models to children. How stupid do we think these kids are? “Oh, Ben Cousins has a drug addiction. Sounds cool.” It simply doesn’t happen. Everyone, especially people of an age where drugs are accessible, are responsible for their own actions.
The World Anti Doping Agency’s drug code has been rejected by the AFL, who say they’re fine doing things their own way. Now, there is talk of drug testing players during the AFL off-season. Not just performance enhancing drugs, which is an entirely different issue that will be touched on later. But illicit drugs such as amphetamines or marijuana. This is ridiculous, and is a complete violation of peoples’ privacy and freedom of choice. Regular people do not have to undergo random drug tests during their lives, because we have a right to privacy. Why should sports people be treated any differently? Who cares if a player decided to pop a pill at the end of season trip? It’s their life, their choice and none of our business. We shouldn’t ever hear about it.
When international superstars such as Olympic gold medallist Marion Jones and Tour de France winner Floyd Landis were found to have been using performance enhancing drugs, the media went crazy publicising everything on the matter and publicly putting the athletes to shame. This encourages a negative stance towards performance enhancing drugs, definitely a positive. And the story had a right to be published, as the Olympics and the Tour de France were public events viewed right around the world, whose results had been altered. However, the point still stands that what these people, and indeed any people who take any kinds of drugs have done, is broken the law. That is their crime. Their crime is not being a bad role model to society.
When referring to young children, role models should be mum and dad, not Wayne Carey, not Floyd Landis. They are not rasing the nation’s children. Yes, sports people are good at what they do, and yes, it would be expected that they are admired for it. But ultimately, when a sports person stuffs up, breaks the law or embarrasses themselves, they are letting down themselves. They are an individual person in a world full of individual people. They are no different, and they don’t owe anything to anybody, least of all hero-worshiping children whom they have never met. This is the view that we in society and the media needs to start taking, or else we’ll begin to see job applications like this one – wanted, centre half forward for the Melbourne football club. Must have good inter personal skills. Must be non-drinker and non- smoker. Must be willing to appear on TV talk shows and at children’s birthday parties. Required to have never made a single mistake in their lives. Robot footballer preferable. Football skills, and passion for the game, are considered bonus.
Thanks for all your help guys. Got a perfect 20/20 for it.
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