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.
It's A Small World, After All. 