Do Sports Foster Criminal Behavior?

This past season has been a particularly poor one for the NFL and its athletes. And that’s putting it lightly. In 2014, there were 59 arrests, citations or charges among NFL players. In 2015 alone, there have been 22.

There are two ways to look at these numbers. Either we can say there are plenty of crimes that happen in society committed by non-athletes every day, and this is just an example of there inevitably being bad apples in every bunch, or we can look at these numbers and conclude that there is a problem in the NFL that results in so many of its players to be linked to criminal activity. A closer look at the issue shows that there is some validity to the latter and it isn’t just a problem confined to the NFL.

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There is always going to be some sort of flaw in data collected. The data looked at for the purposes of this article is based on the number of players arrested, cited and/or charged with a crime. It only includes those arrests, citations or charges reported in the media, so there are presumably a few that have gone unreported. It also includes those who have had charges dropped, so presumably there are people innocent of any wrong-doing included.

However, even accounting for this, there are problems so prevalent that it outshines the few who may potentially be innocent. One obvious way this is seen is in cases of domestic violence. Many players have been arrested and even charged with domestic violence against a partner, but due to the nature of the crime and very complicated reasons, often times victims don’t want to testify against their abusers, and so charges have to be dropped.

There are also many other ways for athletes to get out of being charged or found guilty of a crime. From being well-liked to having connections in law enforcement, players find ways to evade charges all the time. While there are flaws in the data presented, there are also inherent flaws in the way our society deals with athletes that have to be taken into account alongside any outlier cases that may exist.

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The problem of athletes committing crimes isn’t solely confined to the NFL, though that stage has had the most spotlight in past year and a half. College football is just as bad as, if not worse than, the NFL for many reasons.

College football is a much more expansive system than the NFL, with many more teams and players, an entirely different structure, and an entirely different mindset. It is only natural that with such a large scale there are going to be more offenders than in the NFL. However, the numbers still seem unsettling. In 2014, there were 245 arrests, citations or charges among college football players. In 2015, there have been 64.

Many arrests in both the NFL and college football have gone unheard of at the national level, however, there have been an alarming number of stories that have made it to the national media that highlight extensive problems with athletes. Most notably have been Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, Jameis Winston, and Josh Shaw.  Though these are only a few instances, they have brought light to many issues that have plagued the athletic world.

According to The New York Times and USA Today, from 2000- September 2014 there are 713 instances of athletes facing criminal charges or arrests of some sort. The most common is Driving Under the Influence (DUI) with 202 players charged or cited. Given that only the primary crime is cited by these sources (i.e. the most serious if two or more crimes were noted in the same instance by the same player), it is safe to assume that these criminal acts didn’t result in any harm to others. However, the next two highest categories are very alarming because they deal directly with these players harming others. 88 players were charged or cited with assault and battery, and 85 were charged or cited with domestic violence.

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In a sport that is inherently violent, it is a wonder we expect non-violent behavior from these athletes. As a society, we expect these players to be trained to hit and knock down anything that is in their way, and to stop the other team from scoring at almost any cost, and then we expect them to turn around and be model citizens. We teach them to apply what they learn on the field to their everyday lives, but expect them to distinguish on their own which parts are acceptable to transition over and which parts are not. We take athletes and make their decisions for them for the majority of their lives, from when to go to practice, to what to eat, to what classes they can take and what majors they can declare, to when they can talk to their friends, whether it is by their parents and guardians or their college coaches and athletic administrators. Then we throw them out the door when they decide to go to the NFL and we wonder why they can’t make proper decisions for themselves; we wonder why they don’t know right from wrong.

They’ve never had to know right from wrong, unless it has to do with which route to take or which block to make. They’ve never had to make a decision for themselves. They’ve never been given autonomy and then suddenly they’re expected to act like they’ve been doing it their whole lives and have perfected decision making to a T, when most of society hasn’t even done that without these circumstances forced upon us. We can’t expect these players to know things they haven’t been taught or had the chance to learn. We certainly can’t teach these players violence their whole lives and not expect some of them to lash out at some point.

Violence in any context isn’t permissible. These athletes can’t be given a pass because they didn’t know better. The law is the law, and what they did is still wrong. However, it does show society the role we plays in this cycle of violence, and it is time we stepped up and took responsibility for that role.

Athletes Do Not Have To Be Your Role Models… In That Way

Athletes should be role models to society, but only for their athletic abilities. Athletes do not have to conduct themselves in a certain manner simply because they hold positions of influence, and should only be held to the same standards as everyone else. Ordinary people are not publicly or professionally held accountable for their private, personal lives, and athletes should be treated no differently. Their actions off the field should not dictate their worth as an athlete, nor impose punishment for them, so long as those actions do not interfere with their abilities to perform athletically, or interfere with the rules and spirit of the game and any team or league they may work for. Thus, they should not be held accountable by society for being general role models for life, as that job should be left up to the parent, not the athlete.

The most important thing in understanding an athlete’s true role is to understand what a role model is. Just as the name describes, a role model is a model for a specific role. Athletes should then, not be general models on how to live life for children or anyone else, but models for their role as athletes, and admired for their athletic abilities and talents. We do not expect accountants to fulfill more for the general public than their role as accountants, so we should not expect athletes to fulfill more for the general public than their role as athletes.

Some might argue that accountants, as a general rule, do not share the same influence and public exposure as athletes do, so to expect the same from them would not be fair or logical. It does hold true that athletes do their jobs for public entertainment and as such expose themselves to the general public much more than an accountant would. However, ultimately, it is up to parents to be positive role models for their children and to provide positive role models for them. If a parent does a proper job of teaching right from wrong based on the societal norms and values they wish to pass down to their children, as well as ensuring that the child has positive role models in any teachers or religious officials they might be surrounded by, then that child should be fully capable of separating an athlete’s personal actions from their professional ones. They should be able to admire Kobe Bryant for his talent as an NBA player, but still know that they should not follow down his path of marital infidelity or other legal indiscretions. They should also know that just as there are positive as well as negative people to model your character after, solely being an athlete does not make you worthy of being a role model, because some athletes have a positive societal impact and others have a negative one. It should be clear that, being a role model is not dictated or determined by their role as an athlete, just as being an actor or actress does not necessarily make someone a role model.

Furthermore, if you look at a job as a role, this logic does in fact hold up. An accountant is held accountable for his job performance by his bosses, but also by the customers of the business he works for who ultimately provide the financial backing for his salary. If a business has improper accounting practices, then that business will end up losing money or breaking the law, either of which would result in a reduction of customers, which results in a reduction of profits, which in turn results in a reduction of salary for employees or being laid off. An athlete is held accountable for his job performance in the same way, with the fans acting as the customers. If an athlete performs poorly on a consistent basis, the fans are eventually going to stop showing their support, so just as a business would with a poor performing accountant, the team or sponsor that athlete plays for is going to either demand improved performance from the athlete, reduce their salary, or lay them off. Both professionals have a role, and so long as they perform well in that role, they get to keep it.

In turn, one might ask, what if an athlete breaks the law? Even if it is not related to their role as an athlete, are they not accountable for their actions then? While, athletes are held accountable for their actions legally, the same holds true for any citizen of the United States. Since breaking the law is an act that is not related to their role as an athlete, but rather their role as a citizen, they are being held to the same level of accountability as any other person. However, we cannot use this legal precedent for every other aspect of their personal lives. If an athlete does something that is not illegal and not part of their role as an athlete, then that is part of their personal life, and they can only be held accountable for those actions by the people involved, not the general public.

We should not expect more from a star basketball player than to play phenomenal basketball, because an athlete’s personal life is not part of their professional life. So as long as it does not impact their professional duties, it should not be subject to public scrutiny and they should not have to be models for such actions, because it is not the public’s duty or place to hold an athlete accountable for anything other than their athletic abilities.