Athletes as Role Models

For better or worse, the youth of contemporary America consider athletes and other figures in popular culture as their “role models” as opposed to intellectuals. As one who is much more of an intellectual than an athlete (although when I get lucky I’m good at baseball and basketball, but not really), I would prefer the latter because I’m elitist and biased. Regardless, I would like to discuss which athletes are my role models.

Before entering this discussion I would like to state that intellectuals are not “better” than athletes. I can think of many a politician and professor who I can barely admit that I am the same species as them. Athletes tend to get a “bad rap” because they are paid much more than the average person, and there is a minority of them that partake in self-destructive and illegal behavior. We are also a jealous species, envious of the physical prowess of the athlete, and we want to be paid to play a game we take time off from work to play, and at a level far below the professional athlete. I am not going to touch this one, but there is an element of racism involved, especially in the National Basketball Association and National Football League, where a considerable percentage of the players are African-American, especially in the former.

An athlete using his “God-given” physical talent to earn a living for himself is just like the brilliant mathematician going to MIT and earning a living as a professor. Jim Brown using his phenomenal physical skill to great heights playing American Football is (somewhat) analogous to Andrew Wiles using his unprecedented mathematical brilliance to (with the help of topology) solve Fermat’s Last Theorem.

While I write and rant about my favorite intellectuals, Nietzsche, Russell, Sartre, Eco and Bloom for example, it is unfair to the other great individuals who I admire not to discuss them, or give them credit just because they aren’t brilliant thinkers or writers. The first of my athletic heroes is a man by the name of Joe Girardi. Girardi was a catcher for the New York Yankees for a number of years, and also played for the Chicago Cubs, Saint Louis Cardinals and Colorado Rockies. He was a coach for the Yankees (my favorite team in all of sports; well, tied with Maccabi Haifa, מועדון כדורגל מכבי חיפה) and is currently the manager of the Florida Marlins. He is one of the youngest managers in baseball, and it is very rare for a player to become a manager so quickly after retiring from playing, and he is doing a wonderful job on a highly inexperienced team. Girardi’s toughest moment as a player was not as part of multiple Yankees World Series Championship Teams, nor being the Catcher of Yankee’s Pitcher David Cone’s perfect game- it came in June 2002. A teary eyed Girardi had to announce to the fans at Wrigley Field that the game had been canceled due to a “tragedy in the Cardinal (their opponent was the Saint Louis Cardinals) family.” What happened was All-Star pitcher Darryl Kile had passed away peacefully, years before his fortieth birthday in his hotel bed the night before. Kile was one of my favorite pitchers, with a devastating curve ball, and was a friend of Girardi’s. Note that the Cubs didn’t have a super star such as Sammy Sosa make the announcement, or a more popular player; no. They chose Joe Girardi, the light hitting catcher. A man among men, Girardi is my favorite baseball player of all time, and a true role model. Oh, and I can say with much certainty that he never used steroids, having hit a measly 36 career home runs! I would love to meet Mr. Girardi and I have the utmost respect for him as a person and athlete.

Another athlete that I admire is David Robinson. He was the center for the San Antonio Spurs for many years, and was an All-Star, MVP, and helped the Spurs to two Championships. He was a superb high school basketball player, and probably could have gone to an elite basketball school such as Duke University, The University of California at Los Angeles or Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut; but no. Robinson decided to enroll into the Naval Academy, and study mathematics. He was honorably discharged after he became too big (7’1” tall!) for the Navy. David was the first pick in the 1987 draft by the San Antonio Spurs, and was a staple in the paint ever since. Robinson has been a hero to many basketball fans, and he is regarded as one of the nicest, and most respectable human beings ever to survive the National Basketball Association.

Ironically, Robinson’s teammate Tim Duncan is the archetypal “character” player in the NBA. He always has won two Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, and is one of the greatest power forwards in history. He could have skipped college, and gone straight to the NBA, but he spent four years at Wake Forest.

Before discussing a last athlete that I admire, I would like to briefly discuss some clear role models, who I admire but do not wish to profile at this time. Derek Jeter (Yankees’ Short Stop) is so good at life it is painful. I have not yet met a man who doesn’t, deep down, want to be Derek Jeter. This does not include die-hard Red Sox fans, who I refuse to acknowledge as people (I’m just kidding). Other admirable athletes include A.C. Green, Emeka Okafor, Ken Griffey Junior, Chris Capuano, Bernie Williams, Todd Helton, and Joe Jurevicius. Those are all that I can think of at the current moment, and I am positive I’ve missed some, and I am just unaware of great character players. However, those are some of my favorites and I am sticking to it.

Lastly, I would like to discuss one of my favorite NBA players, Charles Barkley. Barkley said, when he was a player, “I am not a role model.” Barkley took much heat for that comment. He has been characterized as a “jerk” and an “asshole”, and had some problems with teammates. However, Barkely’s play was superb, and is one of the greatest players, and one of the five greatest Power Forwards (along with Duncan) of all time. He was mildly overweight for parts of his career, but he could still play “above the rim.” Barkley later became an analyst for Turner Network Television (TNT), and was known for brutal honesty and keen insight into the nuances of basketball. Barley has authored multiple books, and recently stated his ambitions to enter the unforgiving world of politics. Barkley is not a squeaky-clean individual, but he never got into any legal trouble (it was always problems with the NBA and teammates). Barkley is remarkably intelligent and very socially and politically aware, and even though he is kind of a smartass, I admire that, and Barkley is a role model as an intellectual and a basketball player, but not for his behavior.

While I admire Nietzsche and Gauss and Einstein to no end, I still like sports a very good amount, and athletes are to be admired as well. Any comment and omissions and if I missed anything or am mistaken on a fact please tell me. I am working on an essay on Globalization that I hope will take me somewhere, but I have no time table for publication. Thank you.