ideologyhunter
Contributor
Decades of scandalous behavior by some sports pros have removed the gloss of heroism that pro athletes once had. That's healthy, I think. Or at least it's realistic. These are highly skilled entertainers, and at the top tier they are millionaires. The end. Who, today, expects a sports star to be a moral example?
One of my clearest memories from elementary school (because it vexed me so, as a fourth grader), was our gym teacher, Mr. Voiers, sitting us down on the gym floor before class started and telling us that we should start to learn about the big names in sports, because they were good examples to follow. (This would've been around 1963.) This little speech truly irritated me, because my perspective was, "I want to read about Davy Crockett and Abraham Lincoln. Who cares about football players!" You can tell I was a fairly nerdy fourth grader. I suppose there are gym teachers who make similar speeches today, but it's a tougher sell, because the perp rate in pro sports must be close to the one in the hiphop world.
One of my clearest memories from elementary school (because it vexed me so, as a fourth grader), was our gym teacher, Mr. Voiers, sitting us down on the gym floor before class started and telling us that we should start to learn about the big names in sports, because they were good examples to follow. (This would've been around 1963.) This little speech truly irritated me, because my perspective was, "I want to read about Davy Crockett and Abraham Lincoln. Who cares about football players!" You can tell I was a fairly nerdy fourth grader. I suppose there are gym teachers who make similar speeches today, but it's a tougher sell, because the perp rate in pro sports must be close to the one in the hiphop world.