Monday, September 22, 1997 Role-playing UCLA: Bruins discuss the
fairness of athletes’ responsibility to be models of behavior
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Staff
Role models in society are scarce nowadays. The likes of Nelson
Mandela and the late Mother Theresa rarely grab the spotlight of
the media. Therefore, many people find themselves looking to
athletes for guidance.
The Bruin asked several individuals a series of questions to
determine what college athletes and students today think about
athletes as role models.
The Student Athletes:
Traci Arkenberg is a starting forward for the UCLA women’s
soccer team.
Skip Hicks is the starting tailback for the UCLA football
team.
Cade McNown is the starting quarterback for the UCLA football
team.
The Students:
Bijian Feng is a fifth-year economics student.
Manny Maltezakis is a fourth-year political science student.
Joanne Tse is a third-year psychobiology student.
Who is your favorite athlete and why?
Arkenberg: Mia Hamm of the U.S. national team — women’s
soccer. She’s female, and growing up, I did not have many female
athletes to look up to. And second, not only is she a hard worker,
but she seems like a great person that you could admire and look up
to in different ways.
Hicks: Muhammad Ali and Eric Dickerson (retired NFL running
back). To do the things (Ali) did at the time he did is just
amazing. To be as quick as he was and as strong as he was and the
size he was. He was one of those few guys who could walk the walk
and talk it. So I admire guys like that who could really rise to
the occasion. I also admired Dickerson’s running style.
McNown: Brett Favre (NFL quarterback).
Feng: Michael Irvin (NFL wide receiver) — I’m not lying! —
because of all the hardships that he has gone through and the fact
that he is a winner despite everything he has gone through. I
believe it is the performance on the field that matters and what
they do in their own private life is left up to them.
Maltezakis: Bernie Williams (Major League Baseball outfielder).
He is a top-quality athlete that can do everything necessary to
exceed in his sport and he is a quality team player.
Tse: Jerry Rice (NFL wide receiver). He’s been there for so
long. He is one of those quiet but powerful people. Without him,
the 49ers wouldn’t be who they are.
Do you see him/her as a role model?
Arkenberg: Yes, definitely. Although (Hamm) is not that much
older, I do look up to her as a role model for my soccer.
Hicks: I kind of see Muhammad Ali as a role model, and you can’t
help but see a guy like that as a role model. You look up to him,
try to do the things you do and try to be the best you can be.
McNown: No, I don’t really know (Favre). To be honest, I don’t
look at athletes as role models. I look to close friends that I
know as role models — father-figure-type people.
Feng: I believe that athletes are people just like you and me
and they are not role models. Their job is not to be role models.
We have someone like Chris Dudley (NBA center) who helps out his
community, but no one cares about him. Why? Because he is not a
great player. He doesn’t win. When we look at athletes, we look at,
first, do they win or not? And that is the most important thing and
they should be held up to that.
Maltezakis: In terms of (Williams’) play on the field he is a
role model, but off the field … I suppose he gives back to his
community in Puerto Rico, but I wouldn’t know that from anything
that is on television.
Tse: I really don’t consider a lot of sports athletes role
models. If somebody asked me that question, my first reaction would
be to answer with someone who was closer to me — like my
parents.
Is it fair to call an athlete a role model?
Arkenberg: I think it is fair because they put themselves in a
position to be looked at by society. They put themselves in a
position to be watched constantly. … I think a lot of athletes
like the position of being a role model.
Hicks: It might not be fair in some cases, but you just gotta
expect those things when you’re at this level. Everybody is
watching you and you are basically an entertainer. You don’t ask
for it, but it comes with the territory and you have to accept
it.
McNown: That is definitely fair. That is part of the description
of being an athlete. Just because I don’t view athletes as role
models doesn’t mean that little kids aren’t. I know a lot of kids
that view athletes as role models, in the way they act on the field
and off the field, as a way to act themselves.
Feng: Absolutely not! I blame mostly the media for bringing up
this role-model thing. I never thought that athletes should be a
role model. Somehow the media just expects whoever they focus on to
be perfect and not have any flaws. If they have one single flaw
they will mercilessly hit on that flaw rather than looking at all
their good points.
Maltezakis: I think it is fair that athletes get tagged as role
models because to little male children growing up, sports is
probably the first thing that they get into that bonds them all
together. So if they are going to look up to anybody, it is going
to be to an athlete. And if an athlete does something negative off
the field and gets away with it, a little kid will probably think
it is okay to get away with the same thing.
Tse: It’s fair because some people don’t have role models. And
if they need a sports celebrity to motivate them, then go for
it.
How do you feel about possibly being a role model?
Arkenberg: I think it would be great if I were looked upon as a
role model for younger girls. As I said, growing up I did not have
any female athletes to look up to. I think that was a real downfall
when I was growing up. … I think it’s great if a little girl
could look and want to be — not only like me, but any other female
collegiate athlete.
Hicks: I don’t mind (being a role model). I like kids looking up
to me and I like to set a good example to people. I don’t want to
do any of the wrong things that might set kids down the wrong path.
I know that they look up to us college people. … I don’t mind
being a role model because anything to help the streets,
neighborhoods and the kids to get in the right direction has to be
positive.
McNown: Being an athlete, especially the quarterback of UCLA,
you’re in a fishbowl — everybody is watching. You have to be on
your guard and take care of business. Don’t act like an idiot,
don’t get into fights. I don’t drink; I don’t do a lot of things to
stay out of trouble. That’s mostly because of who I am, but it adds
onto it the fact that I am a quarterback and I am very easily seen
in the public eye.
Not one person interviewed had exactly the same opinion on the
subject of athletes as role models. The wide range of viewpoints on
the topic leaves many questions to be answered by every
individual.
Are athletes still viewed as role models? Do they have a
responsibility to behave as role models, or is it unfair to
characterize them as such? Do their actions on or off the field
qualify athletes as role models?
"I look towards other people for role models," says Maltezakis,
"but when I was growing up, honestly, my role models were all
athletes. I was a catcher in little league and high school and I
looked up to Carlton Fisk — a catcher for the White Sox at the
time. But now I don’t look up to them as role models at all.
"In terms of role models, I look to everyday people. My
sixth-grade teacher, now that I look back, was real important to
me. … I look at everyday people … like my dad, you know.
Perhaps this quote says it all.