Timbo7

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Joined March 2015

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Thanks for the article Clyde. Very thought provoking -again.
In a previous article (Does sport really warrant our reverence?) a comment suggested you could swap the terms “professional athlete” with anyone who is required to devote an enormous amount of time to learning their craft in order to achieve success eg a surgeon. I would suggest you could do the same thing in this article (notwithstanding healthcare is more a fundamental human right than being entertained by sport, and also an athlete serves their master in a much more public domain than most surgeons)
The answer to the question re being a role model then hinges on the word “professionalism”.
It is clear that “professionalism” encompasses more than simply demonstrating competency in a unique skill set. Everyone expects a surgeon to be highly skilled in the same way they expect a professional athlete to be highly skilled wrt athleticism. But professionalism is more than this. It, like a “role model” is difficult to define. However, it is sometimes stated as “the habitual and judicious use of communication, knowledge, technical skills, clinical reasoning, emotions, values, and reflection in daily practice for the benefit of the individual and community being served”. It is also stated professionalism is a form of societal contract.
It is just as naive to think that a high IQ individual eg a surgeon, is any more likely to demonstrate high emotional intelligence with moral fortitude than someone who is gifted with athletic prowess. Surgeons, like athletes, do need a rational self interest to remain licensed to practice. However, most would also view their work as more than simply delivering profits to corporations – even though medicine too is a very lucrative business from which many individuals and corporations generate large amounts of income. In fact they are bound to such a societal contract by virtue of their professionalism
Whether professional athletes like it or not, and irrespective of whether they are fallible human beings or simply primates like everyone else, their role as “professionals” is bound with responsibilities one of which includes being a role model. This is made more difficult by performing in the public eye, and is often unfair as the public expectation may exceed their capacity to meet public perception. They could, of course, just remain “athletes” rather than “professional athletes”

RATHBONE: Athletes are just people, so why expect them to be role models?

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