Being a huge sports fan, I could not wait to do this project. People always told me, “Write about what you know”. So naturally, I picked the topic about professional athletes and whether or not they should be role models. I think it is human nature for kids to look up to movie stars, musicians, and professional athletes. In the past, kids used to look up to police officers, firefighters, and doctors, but now with all the fame, glamour, and money, it is rare to see a child idolize one of those professions over an athlete or a movie star. Now in all fairness, there are athletes who are the definition of a bad example, and a bad role model, but we should not judge all of them based on the mistakes of a few. The same can be said for lawyers and police officers for example. There are crooked lawyers and officers in every city, whether we want to believe it or not. Unfortunately, the media only emphasizes the bad part of professional sports. The second a high profile athlete makes some type of controversy, the media is all over it. I can name several examples. In 2003, Kobe Bryant was accused of raping a girl in Colorado; for weeks, all people saw on television was Kobe in court, and negative things said about him. In 2007, Michael Vick was all over the news for his dog fighting crime, which he is now in prison for. The seriousness of that crime justifies the extensive coverage though. But very seldom do we ever see the positive things that athletes do, simply because the media does not find it an appealing story. It is also mostly because being a good role model as an athlete involves doing your job well, and keeping your mouth shut. Chances are, if a child has an athlete for a role model, it is because they like that sport. In which case, they know of other players. So they would also know how many more athletes try to conduct themselves in a good manner, than the ones who go out and make a fool of themselves. And for that reason, I think athletes should be role models, because for every Plaxico Burress, who shot himself in the leg with his own gun while at a club last year, there are ten athletes like Tiger Woods.
For this project, I felt that using some pictures of the athletes that make good role models would benefit my argument. So often we see all the negative publicity of athletes, this was a way to show the good side of these professionals. It was important not to put too many words in the power point presentation because that would take away from the impact I wanted the pictures to make. The colors were very important as well. It would have been a bad idea to use bright, flashy colors because the audience to this argument would not be to adolescents, but rather adults. Overall, I think it was a very efficient way to advocate this topic, and I had fun doing it.
