Hello all,
This week I have decided to write about the imperfections of athletes, and what is shown on television. And, as we all know, professional athletes are far from perfect, as recently proven by Michael Phelps. It always seems the pro's make headlines for the bad behavior and not the good that they do. Michael Phelps is not the only athlete to get in trouble, and be in the public eye for it, nor will he be the last. Phelps was caught by the form of picture proof, smoking marijuana, through a bong. He was stripped of his sponsorship through Kellogg's. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/lat-crazy_1_kent9tnc20090206151528,0,5354365.photo
Image to the right: http://www.starmagazine.com/media/MichaelPhelps_bong_230.jpg I think it's nice to finally see an athlete get punished for doing wrong. How many kids that look up to Phelps look at this situation now and see he got in trouble? They may look at this and see one of their idols got in trouble for something and will see he was severely penalized and decide that doing something of this nature is wrong. Where as if the situation was no penalization, they may see it as acceptable and go on and do it anyways, because their role model is doing it.
The same situation goes for steroid usage that is thrown into the public eye. Look at Barry Bonds, he was an idol to many young boys. Kids look at him and other athletes alike, watch them on tv and see how it makes them perform. They see it makes you play better, and there is a penalty for it but it's not so severe. They get suspended for a while, pay their fines, and then get back on with their lives. Kids see this and decide its an okay idea, and they see it as making them play better. http://media.www.thetriangle.org/media/storage/paper689/news/2005/01/07/SciTech/Athlete.Steroid.Use.Detracts.From.Professional.Sports-830954.shtml Athletes need to see that they are a huge part of the media,they are always on the TV, magazines, and in newspapers. Anything they do is publicized. I believe that if they do things like this more should be done to punish them. They are influencing a whole new generation of athletes. I don't think we need any of the new upcoming athlete's to be running around acting like this.
I wasn’t shocked to see that Phelps was caught smoking marijuana. I was surprised however that he put himself in a situation where he was photographed! After all everyone knows him and he would have to be stupid to think that people wouldn’t pay millions to have a picture of him smoking marijuana or doing anything else that is controversial. From what I’ve been hearing on the news is that Phelps is suffering from this bad decision he made. He is actually losing sponsors and perhaps he may be looking at losing a medal from the Olympics. It is so important, especially for people in the public eye, to set good examples for our youth, after all they are the future leaders of our world.
ReplyDeleteHearing about Micheal Phelps doing drugs was a complete shock to me. I could not believe that an athlete so successful has to steep that low. I cannot believe the amount of athletes that have abused or been accused of using some sort of drugs. I think that the “drug testers” need to be testing more often and probably test more athletes. It seems to me like the most successful athletes are the ones who are using the drugs and that should be a hint to our testers. I do give credit for those who have come out and admitted to the usage of the drugs from them who deny the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteThe Michael Phelps scandal definitely shows that the big names in sports need to be very careful while they are in the public eye. Now any athlete the appears on a steriod list their entire legacy is tarnished.
ReplyDeleteSteroid usage in the MLB is getting rediculous, and annoying. Every time i turn on ESPN theres someone different coming forth and admitting they used it. I honestly believe that steroids are just as prevelent in the NFL as in the MLB, but for what ever reason nothing is said about it. I think it would be pretty sweet to make a seperate league for steroid users, and see the difference in level of play.
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