Free Essay

Idolizing Athletes

In: Social Issues

Submitted By mccallum52
Words 2361
Pages 10
Mark McCallum
5 November 2012
Eng 101: Kruger
1st draft
Idolizing athletes: Should kids do it

“Parents should be role models. Just because I can dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids,” (Donna). This quote was made famous by former NBA player Charles Barkley in a commercial he had produced for Nike. Most people don’t take into account that athletes do not choose to go into their professional field expecting to be every little kids role model. They expect that just because they are professionals, they shouldn’t be doing anything wrong and they should be the ideal person. Most athletes however, manage to keep everything they do under wraps and stay out of trouble entailing the media or authorities. The question that has become very prevalent in the day and age where athletes are caught cheating or being arrested remains in the publics’ eye, whether or not their kids should be looking up to these athletes as role models. Baseball is really starting to crack down on their players using Performance Enhancing Drugs or PEDs. “Long before the innocence of the game was permanently stained by the filthy deception of steroids,” (Posnanski 554). That sums up how most baseball fans feel about where the sport has gone, at least the older ones. Parents who watched baseball in their time and now see baseball players as cheaters who don’t deserve all that they are getting because of how they go about it. The baseball they loved didn’t have steroids or sixty home runs in a season. Now what the sport has become is people who are cheating their way to the top and haven’t earned the right to be there like the players they used to love. The cheating seems to be everywhere now. “Sammy Sosa corking a bat, Johnny Damon using maple instead of ash bats, K-Rod putting resin on his cap, Pete Rose mixing Adderrall in with a cup of coffee, or Mark McGwire’s unbashed andro use,” (Moller 549). These were some of the biggest names in the sport at the time. Each and every one of them was trying to figure out what they could do to gain an upper hand on their opponent. However, that is something parents don’t necessarily like. Had Sosa’s bat never broken you would never know about the cork inside. But it did and the series of events that took place afterwards led people to think of him as a cheater. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Alex Rodriguez were all the same way. They were some of the biggest names in the sport and some of the most idolized athletes in the world. That is until they admitted to taking steroids and other PEDs. A-rod was thought of to be the best player in the league for many years before he had admitted to using steroids. And in essence, that is exactly what he wanted, to be the best. He felt like he could have gotten away with cheating a little bit to get the upper hand and felt like it was worth the risk. Now he is associated with steroids and will forever be looked down upon by parents who feel like that is wrong. “But don’t hate him because he is a cheater, in that sense he is just one of the gang,” (Moller 551)
Cheating in the MLB has been around for way to long to just start getting down on the guys now for doing what was done so many years ago and was perfectly okay. These parents have their valid points. Steroids are cheating and they bring cheating to a whole another level. But cheating has been around since the beginning of time if you truly think about it. Steroids are used to give the players an upper hand. That is the same reason we have technological advancement. Companies want the newest technology to sell to the customer and make the most money. Players want to be the best they can be at all costs to benefit their team. “Baseball was never innocent, America was never innocent, that innocence itself was never innocent,”(Posnanski 556). Cheating has always been a part of the game whether it is as major as steroids now or not it hasn’t changed. In the past, they had their ways around the system as well. No one just thought it was that big of a deal. Stealing signs has always been a part of baseball. Stealing signs consists of watching your opponent’s coach to try and get an upper hand so you know when they are going to bunt, steal, etc. People have openly admitted to stealing signs and in 1951 Leo Durocher used stealing signs to come back and win the pennant. Before the ages of steroids, players used to take amphetamines. Many players used these amphetamines to boost their personal play and overcome exhaustion. This is also their attempt to gain the upper hand. Very similar to why players use steroids. If players the players parents now idolized, were using amphetamines and stealing signs, only because steroids weren’t around how are the players now at fault. They are doing the same thing older players were doing except now it is more prevalent. The only true difference between then and now is back then they were an accepted part of the baseball culture, where as the MLB doesn’t want that same thing to happen with steroids. The major reason this question is being brought up is the morals of the athletes nowadays. People see how much drama athletes are involved with and it consists in every major sport, there aren’t any exceptions. It just so happens, that the major sports, are the ones most highlighted in the publics view. “We the public, place the best athletes on pedestals, gods on high,” (Moller 547). This can describe the situation to its fullest. Athletes are expected to be these greek gods who are assumed to be perfect in every way. This is why it becomes so hard to believe when athletes actually do mess up and it is so dramatic. The good things athletes do are never news worthy. If a professional football player raises money for charity nobody will ever hear about it unless they do some real research into the situation. Charles Woodson of the Green Bay Packers donated two million dollar to his alma mater, the University of Michigan, to help them along with the building of their brand new hospital. This was made newsworthy for just one day and only on ESPN, where someone who is not an avid sports follower would never know such a thing had occurred. Things like this happen every day amongst athletes. These are the types of athletes that kids should grow up loving. The ones who can go out and live a positive life both on and off the field. Most of them actually have charities, which they raise money for all year around but it isn’t publicized because it is not newsworthy. People want to hear about people messing up in the spotlight and although it is interesting to hear it doesn’t catch the attention of the people as much as “PENN STATE LOSES ALL WINS UNDER JOE PA.” This is why people have become nervous about who their kids grow up loving. With such little good information and so much negative it would be hard not to. “Raise your hand if you are guilty of things you have said or done. Mine is raised. But ordinary people aren’t in the spotlight,”(Alfano). While athletes may make mistakes here and there it has to be remembered that they are just as human as the fan watching the game. Everybody is going to make mistakes in their lifetime. It just depends on when the mistake is made and how severe the mistake is. Once the athletes make it, by society’s standards they can’t make a mistake. And if they do happen to make a mistake, society makes it very difficult to make up for it. On the contrary, there is also reason for the public eye to be skeptical of the athletes they follow. “We have to accept that being in the public eye does not qualify athletes, by default, to be good people,” (Shore). Just because an athlete is so popular it does not necessarily make him a good person. The thing is, America only sees what the athlete wants them to see. That is, until the mistake involves the law or media and his true colors show. When kids follow a player or pick their favorite, they only know what he does in the games. If a little boy is watching basketball and sees his favorite player score forty points, he knows that the player is good, and helps his team win. He could grow up idolizing this player just to find out that his favorite player brought a gun to the locker room. This was the situation with Washington Wizards point guard Gilbert Arenas. Being in Washington D.C. there were endless amounts of kids growing up wanting to be the next one to follow in his footsteps. He was the face of the franchise. One mistake and one misdemeanor later, his face was tarnished and parents wouldn’t want their children looking up to somebody who brought a gun to the NBA arena. A similar incident happened with Michael Vick in Atlanta. He was the new hope for Atlanta football and he was marketable. He was a people person and fans couldn’t help but like the guy. After five years in the league, he was convicted on dog fighting charges and his name will forever be associated with animal cruelty. Seeing headlines like these would make any parent cringe when they look down at their child running around outside throwing the football in a Vick jersey. It’s the things people do off the field or court that lead to tarnishing their name, legacy, and most of their entire fan base. Not only are athletes making poor decisions once they are in the league, some are making bad decisions before hand. Most basketball and baseball players opt out of scholarships and other opportunities to continue they’re schooling to have a chance at making it big. When it comes to fame, most of the time people don’t necessarily have to worry about their actions. “Sports figures however are basically the only ones being asked to be role models,”(Alfano). It is all over the news when celebrities such as actors or actress mess up but for that purpose only. They are famous and messed up. When an athlete messes up and makes a mistake, it is assumed that there are millions of kids looking up to him/her and how could they disappoint their fans like that. Athletes are under a presumption that they are supposed to be these great people that everyone should want to be like when they did nothing to accept such a feat. “A team can thus come to represent the aspirations of an entire region or people,”(Why Does 482). This is how some players can get if they have a big enough impact on the team. The star player can represent a whole community and every team has at least their one. Prime example would be Derek Jeter for all of the Yankee fans. If anything happened to him where his image shifted all of New York would shut down in devastation and disgust, depending on which side of New York it is. The question that really needs to be asked before a parent allows their child to idolize a professional athlete, is will the athlete be idolized as an athlete, or as a person. If children are running around idolizing athletes for the people that they are it could end up going either way. “If you idolize athletes, you don’t really want to know the truth about them. Real humans make for false idols,” (Kiszla). They may have made a great choice and the athlete turns out to be like Charles Woodson who not only is a good player but also makes positive contributions to the community around him. Or he may idolize a player like Michael Vick, who is good on the field but off the field makes bad decisions that eventually caught up to him. As a parent, all there is to do is be prepared for the worst although it may never come. Athletes are ordinary people with extraordinary talents. That doesn’t mean they won’t slip up, but it also means that kids shouldn’t strive to be in their shoes one day.

Works Cited
Alfano, Peter. "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Idolize Sports Figures." Bleacher Report. Bleacher Report, 12 2012. Web. 12 Nov 2012. <http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1143405-mamas-dont-let-your-babies-grow-up-to-idolize-sports-figures>.
Donna, Lori. "The Way to Provide Good Role Models." . Arizona State University. Web. 12 Nov 2012. <http://www.public.asu.edu/~jvanasu/vcai/donna/index.html>.
Graff, Gerald. They Say/ I Say:The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. 2nd ed. New York, NY: W. W. Norton &Company, 2012. Print.
Kiszla, Mark. "Let the Lance Armstrong Saga be a Lesson in Hero Worship." Denver Post. The Denver Post, 26 2012. Web. 12 Nov 2012. <http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_21401776>.
Moller, William. "We, the Public, Place the Best Athletes on Pedestals." They Say/ I Say:The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. (2012): 545-552. Print..
Posnanski, Joe. "Cheating and CHEATING." They Say/ I Say:The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. (2012): 553-559. Print.
Sheed, Wilfrid. "Why Sports Matter." They Say/ I Say:The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. (2012): 489-511. Print.
Shore, Jach. "Should Athletes Be Role Models." Bleacher Report. Bleacher Report, 02 2012. Web. 12 Nov 2012. <http://bleacherreport.com/articles/428437-should-athletes-be-role-models>.
“Why Does it Matter Who Wins the Big Game.” They Say/ I Say:The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. (2012): 481-483. Print.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Pay College Athletes

...“Pay the college athletes?” Whether or not to pay college athletes has been in debate for a number of years. No one seems to be able to decide whether or not these “students” deserve to be compensated for their actions on the gridiron, or whether they should be treated just like every other student at the school. The fact of the matter is that these athletes are not actually like every other average student. These athletes for some of these big name schools aren’t just helping the NCAA rake in small chunks of money; in fact they are helping the NCAA make billions of dollars every single year. It seems like only the NCAA is benefiting from the money who are the people in charge, and the workers, the athletes, are working for such a large profit, with no compensation towards them. To some this is the way it should be, but to others, they feels as if the athletes are being abused in a way that they are unable to fight back about. Therefore, do scholarships and free-living expenses make up for the billions of dollars these top tier athletes are bringing in? Or are these college athletes being abused by the billion-dollar industry that they help fuel? Some people view college sports as students at a school, representing their school through the act of a sport. However, the truth is that these college students fuel a billion dollar business that has no income for the actual “employees.” In Taylor Branch’s article, “The Shame of College Sports”, he continuously shows how these...

Words: 1759 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Genetic Testing & College Athletes

...Genetic Testing and College Athletes On April 13, 2010, the NCAA made tests for Sickle Cell Trait (SCT) mandatory, effective in August 2010. SCT is a condition where the blood cells are elongated and potentially block blood flow and resist bonding to oxygen. The trait is generally benign but becomes active under extreme physical stress. For athletes, when performing strenuous activities, the trait is sometimes triggered and can potentially cause death. The statute states “student-athletes must be tested for sickle cell trait, show proof of a prior test or sign a waiver releasing an institution from liability if they decline to be tested.”(Brutlag, 2010) SCT genetic testing and NCAA regulations were implemented in order to protect student athletes, but the testing raises questions of who should receive the test results, the use of the results in discrimination against affected athletes and its potential to be cascade towards excessive genetic testing. In the current legislation, the results from an athletes test are given to the school, the coach and the athlete. This disclosure policy has the potential to be used to discriminate against those who are afflicted with SCT. Although the athlete has the option to opt out of testing initially once they have the test, the disclosure to the school and coaching staff is automatic. The test results should be first given to the student, and then they should have the option to waive liability and not disclose to the university...

Words: 846 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Bang

...College athletes are held to a high standard, to act, perform and live like professionals. Why not pay them like professionals to? Sure you don’t have to pay them as much as professional athletes but there are a lot of reasons why student athletes should get paid rather than just the scholarship itself. When fans watch these student athletes play there is a major profit in money that the NCAA gets from the millions of people watching. Also, the students are the one playing the sport; so paying them would seem reasonable. To make it fair there are multiple ways that students could get paid and the NCAA could regulate the amount each student gets paid. Student athletes deserved to be paid in some way because the NCAA gets large amounts of money from fans watching it, it would cut down on players receiving improper benefits, and there are multiple ways that every student athlete could get paid fairly. The NCAA earns too much money from fans watching the sports that they need to pay athletes. March Madness, Bowl Games, and other events in college sports generate millions of dollars that go straight to the NCAA and its universities. According to Michael Wilbon, an ESPN expert, the NCAA has a contract with CBS and Turner Sports that pays them 10.8 billion dollars through 2024 for March Madness alone. That being the tournament in men’s college basketball in March with 64 teams competing on the biggest stage. Wilbon has always stated that he strongly regrets college athletes getting...

Words: 325 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Should Student-Athletes Get Paid?

...Thomas Bessinger Professor Hortman February 18, 2014 Should Student-Athletes get paid? A very popular question that has been lingering around the sports world for sometime now is whether or not student-athletes should get paid. There are a lot of different opinions about this topic. The NCAA does not allow student-athletes to receive any type of benefits of any kind from the university; if the student-athlete does, he is no longer an amateur athlete and can no longer compete at the college level. This problem has been common over the past years and is causing athletes and universities to be penalized. If the NCAA would allow student-athletes to receive some benefits this would not be as common. Therefore, student-athletes should get paid because they are making money for their university, many student-athletes cannot have a job, and it is unfair for the NCAA to profit off of student-athletes. This reasoning has led many people to try and incorporate change in the collegiate world. Student-athletes, particularly at “big time” schools, have been bringing in millions of dollars in for their universities. The universities are selling jerseys that have the athletes’ names on the back, but the student-athletes are not receiving anything from that (Chen, 2013). Student-athletes are not even allowed to sell their jerseys or other apparel that is given to them by the university. In 2010 the NCAA did an investigation and found out that AJ Green sold one of his jerseys for $1000...

Words: 1188 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Should College Athletes Be Paid

...College Athletes Be Paid In 2013 the NCAA made 912.8 million and 85% of that came from the division I men’s basketball tournament as you can see college sports is very popular in the United States but who really wins? The average division I football player spend about 44 hours per week to football with practice and other sport related activity now mind you this is a college student. College student across the country are given homework and are expected to study for test and be prepared for class when need be so as you can see the athlete doesn’t have lots of time to spare for like working a job. Teams travel to different parts of the country to play sports against others college teams and we all know how hard travel time can be now if I’m not mistaken in this country you have to have some kind of income to make ends meet. The NCAA make all this money while the athletes in which they make the money off of has to travel and dedicate most of all their time to the sport they play. If a student can’t work a job how are they supposed to take care of themselves many student go without eating a hardy meal or having the basic needs to survive yes they may have a dorm room and a cafeteria lunch but your taking about athletes most of which are big human beings that need to eat. The NCAA make money off these kids’ jerseys, video games and autographs but the student is not allowed to take money or profit off anything while not working a job. Many people say well the athlete get a...

Words: 620 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Death of the Ball Turrel Gunner

...Should Student Athletes be Paid? Should the student-athlete receive pay for his athletic performance for the school? This argument has been the topic of debate for many years. Some argue that the student-athlete receives a full scholarship, and this should be his total pay. After all, receiving a college degree should be the player’s primary concern. The point has to be made, however, that the scholarship does not cover all of the student-athletes’ living expenses (Meshefejian). When the student cannot pay his extra expenses, they either chose to leave college or move on to professional sports. Leaving school for any reason eliminates the whole purpose of attending college, which is to receive a degree. The college and the NCAA receive enormous amounts of money from the student-athlete’s sports ability. Because the student-athlete provides the college with such a large sum of income, the student-athletes should be given enough scholarship funds to pay the total cost of attending the school which would provide the student-athlete with a diploma and a degree. The college, as well as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), earns substantial amounts of money from the sports programs at most colleges. In the 2013-2014 basketball season, NCAA received over $1.15 billion dollars just from advertising sales during the tournament(Benedykcik). Mike Benedykcik further reports in his article, The Blue Line: College Athletes Should be Paid that the University of...

Words: 1027 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Argumentive Essay

...(Cassavaugh). Athletes can lose scholarship money because of an injury, poor play or misconduct. There has been controversy that student athletes should be paid. How does one determine who should be paid, how much and where does this money come from? Athletes are amateurs who should concentrate on their education. How does one determine if an athlete is an amateur or a professional? An amateur is one who cannot receive money in the form of salaries or endorsements. They play a sport for the love and desire of it. A professional on the other hand gets paid a salary or money for endorsements. Professionals are also more skilled and concentrate one hundred percent on their sport. Amateurs do not have the time to only commit to a sport since they have to attend classes or work to support themselves. If student Athletes did get paid, college sports would lose their competitive hype. Let’s look at football on a college level compared to the pros. Athletes playing on a college level (amateur) give every play their all trying to do whatever it takes to win with hopes of someday be picked to go pro. Pro football players on the other hand, do not give every play one hundred percent. They are afraid of being hurt and know regardless of the game’s outcome they will still get paid. What if the athlete does not make it to the professional level? These student athletes need to make sure they have an education they can fall back on. These student athletes are students first before the athlete. In...

Words: 1155 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Should Student Athletes Get Paid

...Derek Layton Professor Bird EN 300 11/18/14 Are College Athletes Going to be Paid? The NCAA is one of the top organizations in the world that brings in billions of dollars in revenue on college athletics alone most notably with college football and college basketball. Yes some of these athletes do get compensated with some sort of scholarship which does help out with their expenses but the chances of an athlete receiving an athletic scholarship that is worth anything meaningful is less than 2%. A full ride scholarship might as well be compared to as finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. In cases that an athlete does receive a scholarship this does not come close to covering the expenses of tuition yet alone all of the other expense such has room and board, food and everything else a human being needs to survive. Playing a colligate sport is just as demanding as a full time job and according to a survey done by “[1] The NCAA in 2011 playing football required 43.3 hours per week; college baseball, 42.1 hours; men's basketball, 39.2 hours; and women's basketball, 37.6 hours.” So these athletes have no time with school and their respective sport to find a job to help them with other expenses so they have to rely on student loans, grants or their parents to help them get through school. This also makes it much more difficult for a student athlete to pursue a more rigorous degree such as sciences and engineering. One problem that I have with the NCAA is all...

Words: 1492 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Cash Tech

...to say that many people across the nation believe that a form of slavery still exists in our country today? As shocking as it sounds, there is support of the belief that the NCAA is profiting off of “slave labor” in the form of its student athletes. A relatively recent college football controversy involving former Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel has served as an ideal platform for people to make their case for whether or not college athletes should receive compensation. It’s a debate that’s been up in the air for decades but has now really heated up in the aftermath of the Manziel controversy. The best way to put it is that when the NCAA issued a one game suspension for receiving money in exchange for autographs, the NCAA also sparked a possible revolution upon itself. In the summer of 2013, one of the biggest stories in sports was the Johnny Manziel autograph scandal. Manziel had been accused of receiving a five-figure payment for autographed jersey’s, pictures and memorabilia (Manfred). On the surface, people might not even flinch at the sound of that. A star athlete selling autographs, no big deal, right? Well the “big deal” was that he was a collegiate, not professional, athlete. By NCAA rules and regulations a student-athlete cannot profit off of their name. In other words, this is hypocrisy at its finest. By signing to play football at Texas A&M, Manziel’s name now belonged to Texas A&M until the day he leaves the school. So basically they have the right...

Words: 565 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Why Athletes Should Be Paid

...December 2014 Should College Athletes Be Paid? College sports is one of America’s biggest industries. It is an industry that brings in almost 4 billion dollars every year to the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association). The NCAA is not the only one profiting from this large industry. TV networks like ESPN and CBS, retailers, and of course universities make millions each year because of the work of college athletes. It seems that everyone is profiting off the college sports industry except for the ones who are actually performing. College athletes are not being compensated for their hard work and diligence in this highly profitable market industry. While some college athletes get scholarships, which are renewed each year depending on the athlete’s performance and usefulness to the team, that is still not enough to meet the needs of the athletes. Also these college athletes cannot profit off their marketability and their name. College athletes are not allowed to receive anything of monetary value in exchanged for autographs or memorabilia. Every year, thousands of student athletes across America sign the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Form 08-3a, the “Student-Athlete” form, waiving their right to receive payment for the use of their name and image (Infante et al). However, retailers and college universities make millions off these athletes with university apparel with the athlete’s number on the merchandise. College athletes also bring a lot of interest...

Words: 2865 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

College Athletes Get Paid

...students to their institutions. Universities depend on their athletes to produce and maintain the popularity of their school's name. According to NCAA rules, “You are not eligible for participation in a sport if you have ever: Taken pay, or the promise of pay, for competing in that sport” (NCAA Regulations 1).Even though the athletes are the one making the money for the college the students are not paid for their time spent playing sports. The NCAA has the capabilities to pay the students but it has not happen yet. The college athletes have no incentive to stay in college and finish their degrees, as many cannot afford to pay for the increasingly expensive college...

Words: 912 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Student Athletes Should Not Be Paid

...Would you work for free? How would you feel if you had devoted thousands of hours while attending college and thousands of hours prior to attending to college to receive no compensation for your efforts. This is the exact situation that student athletes in the NCAA are faced with. The NCAA, the National Collegiate Athletic Association is one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the world today with revenues exceeding twelve billion dollars a year. This money comes from ticket sales, marketing and fees for the use of the athletes likenesses across a variety of media. It all directly financially benefits the universities with the student athletes not getting even a bite of that pie. It is surprising that even though student athletes are the most easily identifiable figures in college sports and often the driving force behind this...

Words: 826 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

The Female Triad

...The Female Athlete Triad The three components of the female athlete triad are energy availability, menstrual function, and bone mineral density. The triad is clinically referred to as eating disorders, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis. The female athlete triad has become more prevalent in the United States due to Title IX legislation. The triad is most common among the athletic population, but can occur in the athletic population. It is most common among athletes that are in sports the emphasize leanness. The pressure to perform at elite levels causes many female athletes to combine excessive exercise with calorie-poor diets. The benefits of exercise outweigh the risks, so women of all ages should be encouraged to participate in physical activity. It is important to rest your body between workouts to promote proper muscle and bone recovery. It is important to educate athletes, coaches, and parents on signs and symptoms of the triad to promote early detection and prevention. Energy availability is defined as dietary energy input minus exercise output. Energy availability is the amount of dietary energy remaining after exercise for other body functions. If energy availability gets to low physiological mechanisms reduce the amount of energy that is used for cellular maintenance, thermoregulation, growth, and reproduction. This can restore energy balance but it significantly impairs health. Athletes can cause an energy deficit in many different ways. Athletes reduce energy by binge-eating...

Words: 1181 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Athletes as Role Models

...catch, hit, and shoot a ball as children we have all had some kind of professional athlete to look up to. These athletes represent to us the highest level of accomplishment and they are our “sky’s the limit” type of goal that everyone would love to achieve. The men and woman professional athletes have to constantly watch what they do and say because kids are everyday idolizing them and trying to copy every move they make. These athletes are on the news for things in their personal lives such as rape, drugs, fights and other illegal things. That is a bad influence on children when they see on the news about athletes being put to jail. Many kids in school are in sports, and many of those kids just go to school so that they can be in sports. But if you are their parents, do you want them turning out like today's professional athletes? To help stay in shape, many professional athletes use steroids, which are illegal. Once children see that the professional athletes use these illegal drugs, it is a bad influence on them. Other players have been known for drunken rages and domestic disputes which is definitely not a good interpretation of them in the public eye. Kids will start to believe that since these athletes are on top then it is ok to get drunk all the time and do drugs because there no other worries besides waking up to playing ball and making money but that is not the case. To be a great athlete you need to constantly work hard and not let people influence you no matter what...

Words: 297 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Research Development

...Informative speech outline Student name: Osman Egal Date: November 19, 2015 Topic: Greatest Athlete of All Time General purpose: To inform the audience of the greatest athletes of the modern era Specific purpose: to convince the audience that Michael Jordan is the greatest of them all Thesis: Michael Jordan is the greatest player of all time because no one in his mind could stop him. He was just a phenomenal athlete and his skills were so unique with a combination of fundamental soundness, grace, speed, power, artistry, a thirst for winning and that never went away. Jordan has single-handedly redefined the NBA superstar and is the NBA’s model of how to play. Attention getter: Show audience slides regarding Jordan’s stats and a small highlight video Main points: 1) What makes Jordan the greatest at his sport in the first place? 2) What are some of his major accomplishments? 3) How has he impacted the sports world culturally? Transition: Now let’s get into some of information about Jordan 1) What makes Jordan the greatest at his sport in the first place? a) Numerous NBA players have been quoted saying they grew up idolizing Jordan and the way he plays. His competitiveness, emotion while playing and his jaw dropping moves. b) 6 NBA Championship rings with 6 Finals MVP; he has been to the finals a total of 6 times and not ever lose 1 series, including never taking a series to a game 7! c) No previous champions...

Words: 787 - Pages: 4