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Murphy Martin Commentary
August 25, 2005

 "Role Model Challenge"

Another major professional sports season is about to get underway. As we watch still another edition of NFL activity unfold, the backdrop of questionable activity of participants is vibrating louder than usual because of did they or did they not use performance enhancing drugs banned by their professional sport. Did Mark McGwire break Roger Maris' home run record with the help of steroids? Did Lance Armstrong use something illegal that enabled him to win one of his earlier cycling wins in France? Raphael Palmeiro emphatically denied steroid use while testifying before a Congressional Committee. Major League baseball now says he did.

These athletes and hundreds more -- Jose Canseco, Dwight Goodin, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and most anyone else you can name in the professional sports world will say in unison -- they are not role models by choice. But they are! The good guys and the fewer questionable people are role models.

The opportunity of being a positive influence on young people has perhaps never been greater than it is today. With the spotlight of publicity constantly illuminating the names and faces of athletes in print, in conversation, on television, on radio, on billboards -- the challenge facing athletes to be better role models is more far-reaching than just the contests in which they participate on the athletic fields.

Athletes in many cases are better known than the major decision-makers in business and government. Because of this celebrity status, because the spotlight of attention is becoming a more constant part of their lives, a giant tug-of-war between good and bad fights for control of the minds and souls of athletes.

Temptation is the cheerleader for the bad, saying to the athlete, "Do as you please. The Bible is a myth , man created God, it's not the other way around". Temptation says, "Don't worry about moral conduct, have another drink, or try something new, maybe, smoke this grass, take this pill, don't worry about the consequences, follow me, I am Temptation and I will lead you to new lurid, erotic, debasing literature. I'll lead you to adult movies, vulgar entertainment and along the way I will prove to you that you can live lavishly off your athletic name. You will yield to flattery and promises of power. Power that kicks God out of the schoolhouse and the courthouse ... yes, I am Temptation and you are a celebrity. You are a well known athlete, the toast of the town. Why worry about personal peace or what some young man or woman is thinking of you as a role model? Sure you did not ask them to watch your every move, to idolize you and quote every word they read or hear you say.

Would a good role model intentionally knock a forty-thousand dollar television camera off the shoulder of a man doing his job? I don't think so! Kenny Rogers of the Texas Rangers did. He was suspended for just 13-days. Just a slap on the wrist!

There are many GOOD role models, Roger Staubach, Tom Landry, Troy Aikman, Bob Lilly, and probably many young men will accept the responsibility of adding their names to the good list this NFL season. And maybe those who are too weak to face the challenge will be as honest as Mickey Mantle was in his last days on this earth when he said before the national media: "Don't be like me. I'm not a good role model." Just for having said that, The Mick shared that it never too late to become a better person.

One doesn't have to be an athlete to be a role model. Each of us has an opportunity to be a role model for someone, somewhere.  But not many of us have an opportunity to effect as many people, as indelibly, as quickly, through LIVING examples, as the athletes of today.

Hopefully more athletes will remember that some young man or young woman is watching their every move, copying their lifestyle and using an athlete as their personal hero. And every athlete can be a member of that winning team--it's called The Super Bowl of Life!


Murphy Martin

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Previous commentaries:
August 18 - "Network News Anchors"
August 11 - "Now All Three Are Gone"
August 4 - "Trust in the Media"
July 28 - "Television Then and Now"
July 21 -  "The Mick"
July 14 - "Forty Years and Counting"