Today's Athletes -- What's Up with Them?

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Adam C, well said!!!! The worst thing Hockey did was not work something out with ESPN. The only games I get to see are the Pens (not that I'm complaining) on FSN. I would like to see some other teams though when the Pens aren't playing.



As for this post, I always say, "you can take them out of the Hood, but you can't take the Hood out of them." They are a bunch of men who think they are above everyone else because they play a "kid's game". Basketball is the worst in my opinion. They can take them right out of High School and pay them millions and make them think they are Gods. Then you get surprised when something like this happens. The Cincinati Bungles (yes I know I spelled it wrong) are another team that is going to get a surprise when they have to play a game with third stringersbecause all thier first stringers have a court date to try and stay out of jail. Not that there aren't a few boneheads on my Steelers.;)
 
right berfore the brawl ny knick coach isiaha thomas was threating carmelo anthony not to go down into the paint as he would be " fouled hard ". real good example from a coach and he is condoning his players unacceptable behavior. marty collins and nate robinson as well as isaiah should face stiff fines and suspensions for their instingation of the nuggets. as much as i dis-like the knicks, carmello anthony should have walked away and laughed at the frustated and embarrising team. hey isiah , where's larry brown now ? i am sure he is having the last laugh !
 
Amen, Nelson! ;) What a horible example they are setting for our young people. No wonder some of them have the cocky attitudes they have when the pro (using the term loosly) sports players are setting such a bad example. BTW, I don't watch any pro sports either. :D
 
Do you expect anything less from these people who think they are God's gift to the world? At least in NASCAR it's awefully hard to have 10 people involved in a fist fight on track. Now a 10 car pileup? Welcome to Talledega or Daytona!



Pro sports just goes to show what the parenting skills in this country have become. Since most of the players in the NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL, etc range from 18-40, I bet most of us can relate. The concept of parenting changed in the 70's and 80's. It became more about giving the kids whatever they wanted just to shut them up. That is what pro-sports have become. Pay the player more to do less. I mean $50,000,000 (that's $50 MIL) just to TALK to a player? Gimme a freakin break. There is not a single pro athlete worth more than about 60,000 a year. Period. Imagine how much ticket prices would be if that were the case? I will not support ANY PROFESSIONAL TEAM by being in the stands today. I can hardly watch any sport on TV as there are 5 minutes of commercials for every 3 minutes of game time.



No thanks. Take your "gangsta" and get outta my and my family's lives. What ever happened to the "positive" role models like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, etc? The only sport worth watching any more (besides putting up with the commercials in NASCAR) is Golf. Atleast you don't get some prick player giving the fans in the stands IN HIS HOME STADIUM the finger.... or another player stomping the head of one of his apponents, or charging the mound, or running into the stands to have a brawl with a fan, or ....
 




Wow.... gangsta, Ghetto crap being spewed again, what do you guys really mean here?

Is an NBA brawl any worse than a English soccer hooligan brawl? Or when an entire European beasketball team gets into a fight? Is a knockout hockey stick to the face any different than TO spitting at a ref? My freinds open your narrow eyes and take off the "it's always some black thugs" glasses.... because this crap is everywhere in sports...

Just easy to make it seem like the NBA is worse than Hockey when it comes to violence...

Sorry to play the race card here but you guys sound so damn ignorant sometimes or maybe it's just I read between the lines too much but geez... I wonder out of European Soccer, the NBA or the NHL where do we see the most violence? :angry:



Joseymack



 
Can't a white, or anyone besides a black person be a gangsta??? Maybe it's time for EVERYONE to check their "ignorance".



I said, "Waaaaaaaay overpaid gangstas. I don't and won't watch any pro sports." That includes everyone, yes everyone. :angry:

 
They are part of that "I only give respect to those that earn it" generation.



Meanwhile, many of us remember a time when you implicitly gave respect to everyone, and never did anything that would dishonor yourself.



TJR
 
Q I call it as I see it, the "ghetto" and "gangsta" statements are exactly what they are.. Lets get real. Are you saying we are talking about white guys in general wityh these staements or are we talking about blacks? Let me know..



I am far from prejudice Q but I am vocal, which seems to make me a threat when I just can't sit by and listen.



So tell me what sport has the most unecessary and unsportsman like violence going on these days?



Joseymack
 
Is an NBA brawl any worse than a English soccer hooligan brawl? Or when an entire European beasketball team gets into a fight?
Click to expand...

Only in the eyes of Americans as the English brawls are not show on ESPN and dissected to the nth degree.



Is a knockout hockey stick to the face any different than TO spitting at a ref?
Click to expand...

Personally, what TO did was disrespectful. A Bertuzzi suckerpunch or hockey stick to the face is not disrespectful...it's stupid. My definition of this has to do with personal injury. Spit will not injure anyone (unless it's one of those chunky loogie shots into the eye; kidding of course). Plus, NHL is a contact sport (i.e. checking). Fighting is a part of hockey. It is not a part of the other sports but it does happen. I've played each of these sports for many years and still do and know that all three are very physical but would not consider soccer or basketball as a contact sport in the same category as hockey.



Race has nothing to do with this discussion...unless I missed something as I scanned the thread and can't stand when it's used just be said.



And...what melo did was one of the most cowardly things I've seen in a while. At least the other player was kind of facing him but he retreated faster than a speeding bullet. There's another word that comes to mind when I think of what he did and it begins with the letter 'p'.
 
If the shoe fits, call a spade a spade. The reality is there is a gangsta mentality among many blacks in sports and in music. There just is. Can't deny it because it is there.



I don't remember Larry Byrd ever having drive-bys at his house, or been pinched at an airport with a gun in his baggage...but it seems pretty commonplace these days with the less pigment-challenged basketball stars.



TJR
 
Pro Sports suck. It sickens me to see how little kids and disabled adults at group homes idolize and spend their limited money on expensive pro sports clothes, games, and other paraphernalia.



Missouri taxpayers had to pay big bucks to build the Blues a new arean 15 years ago, the Rams a new stadium/arena 10 years ago, and recently we had to cough up more big bucks to build the Cardinals a new stadium. Now the Royals and the Chiefs are crying for money and threatening to leave Missouri if we don't cough up more money for them.



I say "LET THEM LEAVE".



Why should should pro sports atheletes be idolized? What about the Military? What about Nurses? What about Teachers? What about social workers? What about police and fire fighters? What about underpaid public employees?



Pro Sports make me SICK.



 
As to the race issues:



I don't care what color you are--if you are a gansgster, thug, crook, doper, whore, or plain *******, you get to enjoy your label.



Perceptions start with perceptions that are generally true. I don't care if it is color, occupation, religion, etc., it is up to the other members of that group to police the bad apples and stop their behavior.



IF the shoe fits, wear it.
 
Ghetto and Gangsta can apply to any racial group. Do you think Elvis was singing about a black, "In the Ghetto" Anyone think Eminem acts gangsta?



The point is that professional sports players need to act "professional". They get paid more than the President, so they should use some of that money and learn how a person earning executive pay should act.
 
Pro sport athletes are idiolized because they're in the entertainment business. If the military decided to turn their very real operations into an entertainment business, I guess they could provide personnel bios and create fantasy leagues that score points for kills, head shots, wounded, etc. As great as it would be to have nurses and teachers being idolized, it's not a common thing. However, I would think that a good teacher has a shot at being more of a role model than some athletes.



I love pro sports and watch them as often as I can but I can honestly say that at no point during my 32 years on this planet did I ever consider a sports figure as a role model or idol. I've admired the things they could do on the field/ice/court but who are they. Have they done anything to make me a better person? Did they teach me how to be a good person, father and husband. Not even close. My grandfather gets credit for that. He's a role model to me.



And Nelson...just because they make more than the president doesn't mean they have to act civilized. It would be nice...but you know as well as I do...you'll never get them all to change. Act professional just because they're a professional athlete? I think they're professionals at what they do but don't have to act like some business man of politician.
 
My wife recently took and passed her Praxis exam (a cert for those seeking a teaching degree), and one of the questions for the long-form written part of a practice exam she used during studying was:



"Should pro athletes assume the responsibility of being positive role models for our children?"



You could take either viewpoint, but you had to defend it with examples. My wife and I debated the topic, both pro and con.



My viewpoint was the affirmative; that pro athletes SHOULD assume their responsibility and live up to it. My reasoning was as follows:



- Athletes are heroes for young kids and even many adults that never seem to grow up (wink), and that is just the way it is, and always has been and it won't change.



- As sports heroes, the athlete can't help but be a role-model, first for their abilities on the field of play, and secondly in their personal life with the type of life they lead and the type of person they are. Again, denying that this scrutiny exists doesn't make it so...the fact is that it DOES exist.



- Many athletes will say "I don't want to be your kids role model!", and that's just bunk. They want the sneaker and sports gear endoresments, and those endorsements are CLEARLY there so that kids and fans EMULATE them and buy the products. Remember "I wanna be like Mike!" Do you think that would have been a good ad campaign if Mike was a gangsta? So, when it comes to merchandising, season passes and memoribilia, the athlete wants to be a postive role model and wants to be placed on a pedestial, but then some don't want the same in their private life. Sorry, you can't have it that way, with GREAT GREED comes GREAT RESPONSIBILITY.



- A good athlete "passes the ball" but a great athlete always "wants the ball". A great athlete assumes the responsibility and burden of making the great plays that win games. That same great athlete WELCOMES the opportunity to be a positve role model to kids...they want that ball. It seems the ones that don't want the "role model ball" are the ones that are failing at being a good role model.



TJR
 
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I think the salaries of many of the professional athletes is totally obscene! The only way to slow it down is to stop buying tickets to the games, stop watching the games on TV, and perhaps write to the individual leagues and team owners to stop subsidizing this violence and the obscene salaries.



It makes no difference if they win a championship, it won't last if the team is not making money.



I have gotten so that I rarely watch any professional sports. Unfortunately, most of the players are not involved and rarely get recongnized as franchise players. It's the self indulging super-stars that are always in the middle of the controversy. It makes no difference to them if they get good press or bad press, just so that their name gets in the paper and on the news. That's all they want. Most of them make enough money just signing their contracts, that they never have to worry if they ever play in another game. The team owners and the leagues are allowing this to happen, and it needs to stop.



...Rich
 
TJR - the flip side to what you wrote is what if I'm the best player in the draft for whatever professional sports but I've been busted for pot several times, history of violence with girlfriends and have been tied to certain gangs. The teams in the league then have to guage whether it's worth taking a shot at me. Let's say some team takes a shot at me and offers me that huge contract and multi-million dollar signing bonus and I don't change. I continue acting the same way that I had to get me where I'm at now. Am I not living up to my end of the deal because I signed a contract? Because I wanted money. Because I wanted to get my family out of their current living arrangements. What if I was always a jerk off and continue to act that way? It's tough for these teams and managers because they have to assess the troubled talent and hope that they can change them to an acceptable level. Problem is that not all of them change and many change just enough to get by for a while but have their setbacks.



I've also read your posts that it's a parents responsibility to raise their child (I don't mean to put words in your mouth but if memory serves me correct, that's the general concept you conveyed). Then our children would only label a hero as the way you have taught them. If you explained to your child that a hero or role model is more than someone who's good at a sport to the point that they truly understood, the players would not be the heroes of our children.



Just a few thoughts. I can see both sides of this argument but I clearly agree that unless a sports figure is doing remarkable things on and off the field and have made someone a better person, then they are not close to achieving role model or hero status (in my book).
 

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