The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Why do we think athletes are role models?

Roar Rookie
9th October, 2016
Advertisement
The Highlanders' Aaron Smith. (AAP Image/ SNPA, Ross Setford)
Roar Rookie
9th October, 2016
56
1288 Reads

The All Blacks’ squeaky-clean image has been tarnished in recent weeks due to an off-field incident that has left a stain on the proud legacy of one world sport’s most famous brands.

Dynamic All Black halfback Aaron Smith was caught with the proverbial hand in the cookie jar this week in an accessible bathroom (with a woman other than his partner notwithstanding) at Christchurch International Airport.

Now, the behaviour of entering a bathroom allocated for people with a disability is in itself more than enough cause for moral angst.

However, a lot of the vitriol directed at Smith this week is more of the ‘he’s a role model’ line, which has the issue of the way we revere our sporting heroes at heart.

First and foremost, Aaron Smith is no role model. And nor should he be. He plies his trade in a unique environment and has to follow certain standards to which All Blacks should behave which is vital to the longevity and glorious history of this team.

But I believe this does not allow people to tag a young man with a moniker of being a role model.

Everywhere you look in sports, the media are poised and ready to pounce at the slightest indiscretion of a famous player in some sort of compromising situation. Everyone would remember the infamous Sonny Bill Williams ‘toilet tryst’ and more recently a severely inebriated Mitchell Pierce in a less than flattering video.

Why do we always hear that these men and women who happen to be good at their chosen sporting pursuit automatically qualify as a role model?

Advertisement

We need to respect these people by recognising one thing. Their humanity. I, of course, believe in the due diligence here from a standpoint of ensuring people are punished for indiscretions relating to contractual obligations. But why do people feel personally let down when athletes do something to prove they are, lo and behold, human.

These sportsmen and women do not owe anyone of us a thing. They deal with the intense scrutiny regarding their form, job prospects and have their wages proclaimed in headlines around the world.

This does not mean Joanne and Joe Bloggs can use them as a way to raise their children and then screech aghast when they make a mistake with camera phones at the ready to drop them down from the lofty pedestal we, as a sporting public, put them on in the first place.

It’s time we grew up as a sporting audience a moved away from the romantic idea of these people as ‘better’ or more ‘noble’ than you or I. They are exciting to watch and provide great memories and moments and offer us inspiration at times which can be enticing.

But they are definitely not role models.

close