In 1992, Hall of Fame basketball player Charles Barkley and Nike released a controversial commercial which started with Barkley saying into the camera "I am not a role model." The commercial was controversial, because athletes are role models whether they want to be or not. However, Barkley was making a point that the people criticizing the commercial either missed (which I doubt) or ignored (more likely). He shouldn't be a role model. This point is made clear by the last line in the commercial, "Just because I dunk a basketball, doesn't mean I should raise your kids."
I thought of this commercial in the midst of the Ray Rice/NFL scandal. In case anyone reading this doesn't know what I am talking about, Ray Rice is an NFL running back who knocked his fiancée out with a left hook to the face in an elevator in Atlantic City. He then dragged her body partially out of the elevator, like a caveman. He also kind of kick-pushed her body with his foot, to move it around a little. Hard as it may be to believe, the video of this scene is more disturbing than my brief description.
The NFL took five months to punish him and gave him a 2 game suspension. The NFL was widely criticized for the leniency of the punishment and reacted by creating a "domestic abuse" policy. Under the NFL's new "domestic abuse" policy, a player is suspended for 6 games after the first incident, and banned after a second incident. Rice was exempt from this policy, because he had already been "punished" for his actions.
Two months after Rice was "punished" a new video from the elevator, showing Rice punching his fiancée, was released. Prior to this, the only video available was outside the elevator, showing Rice dragging her lifeless body and giving her the aforementioned kick-push. The new video showed the punch. The NFL reacted by re-opening his case and banning him from the NFL. The Ravens cut him. His fiancée criticized the media for messing with their lives to create "ratings". Roger Goodell, the Commissioner of the NFL, began spin control, rather unsuccessfully, I might add.
In the last two days, it is clear that the NFL as an organization, and Goodell specifically, handled this poorly. That is the best case scenario. The worst case scenario is that the NFL willfully ignored all the evidence to give Rice a short suspension then lied through their teeth when the second video was released and are now trying to make this all go away with a phony investigation by a former FBI Director who works for a law firm that does a lot of business with the NFL. I have read and heard multiple calls for Goodell to resign or be fired.
I do not plan to go too deep into the Ray Rice situation or Roger Goodell's job. I have discussed this a few times with The Wife and ultimately called it a minefield. I prefer not to misstep and blow up. I have no job to lose and no reputation to tarnish, but I don't find this situation easy or straight forward. This is a mess. I gave the background, because the situation raises a number of interesting questions related to sports, athletes and kids.
In the midst of this whirlwind, the Baltimore Ravens, Ray Rice's former team, played a nationally televised Thursday night game on the NFL network. You really can't make this stuff up. The stories from that game this morning included coverage of the games and coverage of the number of fans wearing Ray Rice jerseys in the stands. According to reports I read, some of the fans are conflicted, some support the Ravens and many support Rice. The fans wearing the Rice jerseys were not limited to men, many women supported Rice as well. When I say support, I don't mean they think he didn't do it or that he was right, but that he didn't deserve to be cut or banned from the league. That the punishment from the NFL was too much.
This is where Charles Barkley comes into the picture. "I am not a role model." I love Barkley and I loved that commercial when it came out. It seemed so simple. Athletes are athletes. They are physical freaks who can do things very few people in the world can do. A professional offensive lineman is a 320 pound (or more) boulder that can run faster than you. A professional basketball player is a 6' 10" wall of muscle who has more coordination than your average ballerina and can jump into the ceiling. An Olympic swimmer can move faster in the water than many people can move on land. (OK, maybe that one is exaggerated a bit). However, outside the game arena, they are people, and some of them aren't very nice people or good people.
Sports are a distraction. At this point, they are a multi-billion dollar industry as well, but their purpose for the average person (fan) is to provide entertainment. Fans don't (usually) cheer for particular athletes because they are good people. They cheer for particular athletes because they are good athletes, usually from their favorite team. They don't stop cheering because someone does something wrong. They stop cheering when the athlete changes uniforms. It may be uncomfortable, but it is a fact.
If you ask me who my favorite athlete is, I am not sure what I would say. If you ask me who my top 10 favorite athletes over the last 25 years have been, I would include Lance Armstrong and Michael Irvin on that list. Lance Armstrong is one of the most disgraced athletes of the last half century. Michael Irvin was a cocaine sniffing, prostitute chasing, fur wearing blowhard. I loved them both. I still have a framed picture of Irvin hanging in my study. Why? Because I never admired Irvin for his character, I admired him for his ability to get open, catch the ball and score touchdowns. I read fairly early in Armstrong's career that he was a complete ass-hole. That was long before the lies and drug use were confirmed, even by him. However, he gave me 7 years of joy, dominating the Tour de France. Some of the things he did on his bike were complete ass-hole moves (staring at Jan Ullrich before dropping him on L'Alpe d'Huez, for example), but I even enjoyed those. Why? Because I admired Armstrong the bike rider, not Armstrong the person.
Armstrong is an interesting case because he did a great deal of good, but he also very clearly demonstrates Barkley's point. You have no idea what athletes are really like. Middle loves LeBron James. From most of what I have heard, LeBron is good guy, a family man and has no skeletons in his closet. However, I have heard one local Washington reporter who says the public persona is all fake and LeBron is a big jerk. I have no idea what he is really like. I make sure not to say really good things or really bad things about LeBron to Middle and I have tried to make Middle understand that he can admire LeBron the basketball player and not worry about LeBron the person.
Of course, this is nearly impossible to do, both for the athlete and the person. Barkley was right, just because he can dunk a basketball, doesn't mean he should raise my kids. However, he was wrong. Athletes are role models. They are role models to children who want to be athletes, or who want to be rich, or who want to imagine a life better than what they have right now. As Ryan Bingham, played by George Clooney, said in Up In the Air, "kids love [athletes] because they follow their dreams." Athletes are role models, because they are living a dream. Children are always going to look up to that.
I realize this a rather unsatisfying conclusion. Athletes shouldn't be role models, but they are. Even the ones who you think are good role models (Ray Rice was seen as one of the good guys according to most articles before this incident), have the potential to fall hard and crush a child's love. There is no good answer. In an ideal world, world class athletic ability would come with impeccable character. Unfortunately, we live in the real world, where the exact opposite is sometimes true. Maybe for a parent, that is the only lesson you can hope your children learn. Or maybe it is time for Barkley to instill some more wisdom on us.
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