A Hall-of-Fame basketball player is arrested for driving under the influence. A diva NFL wide receiver shoots himself in the leg with an unlicensed gun. A professional golfer tees off a beer can during a match. All-Star-caliber professional athletes hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons on a consistent basis.

Players are often viewed as role models, but their shenanigans off the court can have a bad influence on their fans, specially young student-athletes.

Professor William Morgan, a teacher in the USC Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, educates students on the field of sports ethics.

“In general, the tendency of a young high school athlete is to emulate star athletes,” he said. “Some [star athletes] are not good role models, and professional athletes have an obligation to be role models.”

Senior lacrosse goalie Yanni Rindler feels the same way.

“I don’t feel it necessary to emulate Cal Ripken Jr., but I feel like I must remain responsible and level-headed at all times,” he said. “Since, as an athlete, my actions are studied and focused on, it is pertinent I show good qualities.”

“I am not a role model”
Take Charles Barkley, the NBA Hall-of-Famer and current Turner Network Television (TNT) NBA color commentator. At 1:30 a.m. on New Year’s Eve, Barkley was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol while returning from a party in Arizona. As a result, he was suspended from his job for a month. He returned last Thursday. Ironically, Barkley himself made the case in the early 1990s that athletes should not be considered role models. Starring in a Nike commercial 15 years ago, he bluntly told viewers, “I am not a role model….parents should be role models.”

Swimming captain and senior Chris Emr, whose role model is Olympic gold medalist Aaron Peirsol, strongly disagrees.

“Professional athletes are made role-models by the kids who look up to them,” Emr said. “But they’re definitely not always the best role-models.”

In our society, athletes are often worshipped by their young fans. When those players behave badly, fans are crushed. On Jan. 6 this year, San Diego wide receiver Vincent Jackson was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) just days before a divisional playoff game.

The San Diego Union Tribune online forum lit up with fan comments. “Pretty disappointing,” wrote a Chargers fan. “What’s wrong with these guys? Your living is made on your strength and stamina and you’re out getting drunk before the most important ball game of your career?”

“Professional players do have an obligation to behave responsibly off-the-court,” Professor Morgan said. “I do not think athletes are special, but their behavior is important because of how many people look up to them as role models.”

Celebrity culture and athletes run amok
The big money and commercial endorsements players can quickly achieve with fame feed the bloated egos that often plague these high-powered athletes. After his record-breaking eight gold medals in the Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps rang up endorsements from various companies, including AT&T, Visa, Speedo and Kellogg’s.

Then, on the Jan. 31 cover of Britain’s News of the World magazine, there was a cover picture featuring Phelps smoking marijuana at the University of South Carolina last November. His error cost him both money and competitions. His sponsorship with Kellogg’s – the leading children’s cereal producer – was dropped, and he was suspended for three months from competition by USA swimming.

Oftentimes, though, athletes get off with barely a scratch. Kellogg’s was the only sponsor to drop Phelps.

“One thing that worries me is that athletes are pampered, and aspiring athletes [copy them],” Morgan said. “The [professional athletes] get special treatment, and [young student-athletes] are in a different standard in how celebrated athletes are treated.”

Some athletes seem to keep getting into trouble, tarnishing the good name they may have acquired on the sports field and earning a bad-boy reputation that dogs them throughout their career. Consider ex-Indiana Pacer Ron Artest. He will surely never live down his role in the infamous ‘basketbrawl’ incident that erupted Nov. 19, 2004 in a game against the Detroit Pistons where he leapt into the stands to attack a defenseless fan. The brawl cast a black eye on the NBA, one that took years of public relations damage control and may even still be hurting the NBA’s public perception.

Or consider the more recent case of New York Giants wide-receiver Plaxico Burress. On Nov. 28, he went to a New York City nightclub with his teammate and co-defensive captain, middle linebacker Antonio Pierce. At some point, Burress accidentally shot himself in the right thigh with an unlicensed gun that was buried in his right pocket of his sweatpants. The next day, he was charged with criminal possession of a handgun.

This incident was the latest in a number of controversies involving Burress. He was suspended for the Oct. 5 game against the Seattle Seahawks for a violation of team rules. On Oct. 24, Burress was fined for accumulating for inappropriate post-game comments regarding officiating, unsportsmanlike conduct towards a head linesman and for simply throwing the ball into the stands. The fines totaled around $45,000, and have diminished Burress’ fairly-recent perception as a megastar that he earned following his Super-Bowl-winning touchdown catch a year ago.

“I feel that it was ridiculously stupid and immature to carry around a loaded gun, and he was lucky no one was seriously injured,” Rindler said. “Just because he is a star athlete shouldn’t allow him to not face the consequences of his actions, so not rejoining the team was not harsh enough.”

“In the Spotlight”
Once charged with a misdemeanor or felony, some athletes pay the price immediately. Barkley was stripped of his job as sports commentator on TNT a few days after his DUI incident, and was out for many weeks.

Golfer John Daly was recently suspended for six months by the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) for a number of altercations this past year. Daly is known to fans as a golfer who has a non-country club appearance and attitude, as well as a rough-and-tumble personal life, including various incidents of being under the influence of alcohol.

During the Buick Open Pro-Am in Grand Blanc, Michigan on June 26, Daly hit a golf ball off of a beer can that belonged to Detroit singer Kid Rock. On Oct. 27, he was intoxicated outside a Hooters restaurant and was sent to jail, which led to a photo posted on the internet of him in an orange jail suit with his eyes half-open. After a rain delay in the PODS Championship, Daly used the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ head coach John Gruden as his caddie for the final seven holes of the round – losing swing coach Butch Harmon in the process.
For those incidents and a growing suspicion of alcoholism, he was suspended for six months and lost most of his endorsements, such as Focus Golf Systems, which had signed a 15-year agreement in 2006 to sell his golf clubs and apparel in Wal-Mart stores.

“Professional athletes are role models to many youth who look up to them and strive to be as athletically dominant,” Rindler said. “Unfortunately, I think most athletes are unfit for this role due to on and off the field antics, as well as showing characteristics that should not be taught to children (i.e. disrespect, cursing, violence ...etc.).”

“Yes, [professional players have an obligation to behave responsibly off-the-court],” senior basketball star Chelsea Craig added. “They are in the spotlight and it’s a part of [their] job, it’s one of the roles they take on when they become superstars.”