Posted on 08/29/2020 11:30:37 AM PDT by Twotone
Nearly 30 years ago, in a 1993 Nike commercial, professional basketball legend Charles Barkley fired the first shot at the “role model” concept popularized by Columbia University sociologist Robert K. Merton in the aftermath of the 1960s counterculture movement. “I am not a role model,” Barkley proclaimed in the half-minute spot. “I’m not paid to be a role model. I’m paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents should be role models. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.”
Barkley’s words landed with a force every bit the equal of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s National Anthem knee 23 years later. Former Vice President Dan Quayle defended Barkley, while Barkley’s fellow NBA superstar Karl Malone criticized him in Sports Illustrated. Leading news magazines, including Time and Newsweek, published articles exploring the controversy. Newspaper columnists from coast to coast—on and off the sports pages—also weighed in. The topic still sparks debate today.
Of the many phrases and concepts Merton coined—including “self-fulfilling prophecy” and “unintended consequences”—“role model” has had the most impact. On the surface, the argument that young people tend to model their behavior after high-profile, successful adults is harmless. However, in retrospect, the elevation of athletes and other celebrities as primary figures in the formation of behavioral norms for young people helped create the conditions that are powering the destructive Black Lives Matter movement today.
(Excerpt) Read more at imprimis.hillsdale.edu ...
It’s a good thing.
Don’t sit on the couch watching people play sports.
Go play a sport, THAT’S what they are for.
Over the past few years, I've been more than happy spending my weekends hiking some trails, reading some good books and catching up on some old movies as opposed to seeing whether my "local team" beats some other team from somewhere else. Those teams, made up of course, from mostly athletes from some other area who could just as easily be playing for another team that offered them more money.
What utter juvenile nonsense that was.
Nothing sadder than seeing a grown man sporting an overpriced jersey from some pro shop with another man's name on it. How emasculating is that!
bookmark
They are not American sports leagues.
They are liberal sports leagues.
Letting????? It’s finished!!
The United States needs a reordering of its hero worship. Athletes and celebrities have proven themselves unfit, for the most part. In addition, it builds unrealistic expectations in vulnerable youth who believe they can be the next great hit.
Real heroes are everyday citizens who are honest, helpful and responsible. They include the mother of four who runs an interfaith center for food and clothing and who, with volunteers, have kept it running throughout this pandemic. It includes the school custodian who gave up his dream of being a mariachi player to be a husband and father to four kids who all have advanced degrees. It includes the men and women who have opened their homes to foster kids, ageing relatives and struggling families. It includes religious leaders who have pushed the gospel and morality over the zeitgeist of materialism and immorality. It includes preachers who tell their black congregations that its the lack of fathers and the use of drugs and alcohol who most hurt their own people. It is the people who believe others will most likely strive to improve the country if they know its strengths and potentials instead of its failures. It is so many more who live and appeal to the best in others, not the worst.
F the spoiled players who don’t care about the 10’s of 1000’s of people who make their living off sports.
The little People who operate cameras, beer taps, brooms, sales of sports memorabilia, parking attendants, tv crews etc.
They are All out of work thanks to the pompous players and the over reaction to Covid.
The owners and players deserve to go down but the workers Do Not deserve this
“ Barkley’s words landed with a force every bit the equal of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s National Anthem knee 23 years later.”
Writer is very much mistaken here.
Barkley did not pledge non-allegiance with the flag, as Kaepernick did, along with everyone else who enabled and condoned his pledge.
That is seditious. People are missing that. BLM is not missing it.
And that slide will be most pronounced among those who don't receive a monthly check from Washington.
Not the PGA. Its as exciting and competitive as ever without the politics.
American sports are dead due to the actions of a few players and the team owners. ESPN and the rest of the sports media will die off soon. Sports bars will have to re-tool.
It might be time to apply the great democrat technique to professional sports; we see them as somewhat imperfect, so let’s abolish them entirely and replace them with something else.
Real heroes are everyday citizens who are honest, helpful and responsible. They include the mother of four who runs an interfaith center for food and clothing and who, with volunteers, have kept it running throughout this pandemic. It includes the school custodian who gave up his dream of being a mariachi player to be a husband and father to four kids who all have advanced degrees. It includes the men and women who have opened their homes to foster kids, ageing relatives and struggling families. It includes religious leaders who have pushed the gospel and morality over the zeitgeist of materialism and immorality. It includes preachers who tell their black congregations that its the lack of fathers and the use of drugs and alcohol who most hurt their own people. It is the people who believe others will most likely strive to improve the country if they know its strengths and potentials instead of its failures. It is so many more who live and appeal to the best in others, not the worst.
This is the message America's youth needs to hear. Thank you.
Instead of complaining that they aren't "American" enough, let the American people get past professional sports once and for all.
Right now is a good time, because we are being forced to learn we can do without. Let's make that permanent.
True. Additionally we are being forced to learn that if we want them back, then eating a crap sangwich is going to be the cost of being able to patronize their corruption. No thanks. I’ll watch Bar Rescue instead.
Sports was a huge part of growing up in my day, a simpler time. We listened to masters of verbal poetry like Vin Scully and Bob Prince and Mel Allen on the radio and used our imagination. We boys idolized Mickey Mantle, Johnny Unitas and others. Mantle on his worst days with hangovers was more honorable and charitable that these guys. And you never knew who the hell he voted for.
In the old days, if a youngster met a pro athlete, they would rarely let you down. They drank, caroused, and chased women, living to excess, and left everything they had on the field. They played hard and we believed in them. They were men, real men. Many of them were veterans.
This stuff today is sad and pathetic. Who gives a flying damn about Lebron James?
American sports have turned into black justice sports. No thanks.
You saying LeBron ain’t being a man? Not an attack, just a opening for convo.
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