by Scott Rosberg
When I started writing these columns in August, I told you that I had written articles in 2000-01 for the old Park County Weekly. I also said that as I read over some of those old articles, I realized that, all too often, a lot of the same issues and problems in sports from back then are still happening today.
Portions of today's column are from a column I wrote on Super Bowl Sunday in 2001. It was about how disappointed and frustrated I was at the behaviors I saw exhibited from the professional athletes who are the role models and examples of what our athletes are supposed to be and how they are supposed to act.
Unfortunately, over the last 22 years, things have not only not gotten better—they've actually gotten worse. Oh sure, we have our share of outstanding character people in professional sports who do things the "right" way and who are models of behavior that we want our kids to emulate and exhibit.
But all too often, these are the exceptions, or at the very least, not the ones who make the headlines. The number and the severity of the poor behavior incidents that we have from professional (and now college) athletes has risen compared to 2001. It seems that on a daily basis, we are seeing or reading about another athlete behaving badly.
As you read about athlete behavior in 2001 and 2023, see if you agree that we need our professional athletes to step up and be so much better when it comes to behavior and setting the example for college, high school/middle school, and youth athletes around the world.
2001 - I am writing today's article about the Super Bowl from the perspective of a high school coach. From the moment I became a coach nineteen years ago, many of my previous feelings toward athletics changed. For instance, prior to being a coach, I was a huge fan of the NBA. That was due mainly to my hero, Dr. J, and the exciting play of the individual athletes. Since becoming a coach, I am much more interested in the college game with its emphasis on team play.
2023 - I would change that last statement now, as over the last twenty years, far too many men's college teams have adopted more of an isolation, individual, look-at-me style of play, too. Over the last ten years, though, I have come to appreciate the WNBA and women's college basketball more, for the majority of the teams I see focus more on team play than individual play. However, I would also say that for many of the last 22 years, I saw the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors in the NBA play a beautiful team game. Gee, I wonder why those teams won so many championships during that span!
2001 - As I sit here today watching the pre-game shows for the Super Bowl, I am concerned about the present state of professional athletics. When I was kid, professional athletes were heroes to be looked up to. In today’s Super Bowl we have a couple of teams (Baltimore Ravens & New York Giants) that have players who have made headlines for their roles in very serious criminal activity. It sickens me to see the way we so easily allow professional athletes to not follow the rules of society and then let them back to their multi-million-dollar careers. These are the “heroes” for our kids to look up to?!? I know that the professional athletes of my childhood were not angels (but it's amazing how far things have fallen since then).
The player introductions have just ended, and I am disgusted. I understand that this may be the only time most of these players will be introduced for the Super Bowl, so they deserve to enjoy this moment. But how many chest poundings do we have to endure before someone reminds these players that they play a team game, and that as great as each of them may be individually, they wouldn’t be introduced if there weren’t forty-four other teammates out there with them?
Also, didn’t anyone tell these players that there would be microphones down on the field in their team lines as they were being introduced? We heard the “F” word once and the “MF” word once as well as when the players came charging onto the field to join their teams. Actually, I believe the players probably were told that there would be microphones down there, and they just chose not to care about who was listening. I mean, who cares if my eleven-year-old stepdaughter and millions of other children are sitting watching this game?
This is what really bothers me about professional athletics today. Our kids are taking their cues from these athletes on how an athlete is supposed to behave. For all of my years as a coach, I have felt it is very important that my athletes be classy ambassadors of our program, school, and community.
Why aren’t our professional athletes held to similar or even higher standards? Why, as the years have gone on, have I had to tell my athletes not to emulate so many players in the big leagues? These are the players that should be the ultimate examples for our young athletes to follow. Instead, all too often, I hope my kids don't watch them play.
Yes, there have always been bad apples in sports. But it seems that the number of them has grown and continues to grow at an alarming rate. The problem is that our kids see this behavior more and more, and too often they believe that is the way they need to behave to be an athlete. This trend is potentially dangerous to the future of athletics since our kids are the athletes of the future.
2023 - Unfortunately, we have seen far too many young kids pick up on these negative traits that professional and college athletes displayed back then and continue to display. I am galled every time I see a "look at me" antic acted out to the crowd at a college, high school, or even youth sporting event. There is nothing wrong with being excited about your success. But react to the moment with joy and exuberance and with your team and get back to your competition.
2001 - We need help from these kids' athletic heroes. We need professional athletes to lead as positive examples by being good sports, good team players, and good citizens. I know that we will always have athletes who are going to behave in negative ways. But we need to make those types of athletes the exception, not the norm. Also, we need to get back to a time where our young people look at those athletes who behave poorly and say, “That’s not the way a real athlete acts. I’m going to behave with class.”
2023 - At this point in the 2001 article, I asked, "So who do I want my kids looking up to?" I gave a list of four athletes competing at that time who were considered beacons of integrity, but I want to focus on one of the players I listed—Tiger Woods.
Eight years after that article, Tiger quickly went from being looked on as a role model for character and proper behavior to a total dirtbag devoid of any integrity. Due to his extramarital affairs & infidelity, Tiger instantly destroyed his reputation and the respect he had from millions of people. And while Tiger worked hard over the years to repair his image and his name, there are many people who will never forgive Tiger Woods for his transgressions and who will always view him as scum.
So, as you consider the behavior of the professional and college athletes competing today, what do you see?
Are they handling themselves the way we want our young athletes who look up to them to act, too?
Or do you see a need for a change?
I would love it if they were the role models we wish they would be and the outstanding positive examples they were setting were trickling down to our young people.
Unfortunately, I think our best bet at seeing the proper behaviors from our professionals will be to have it trickle up to them from our young people.
We must continue to stress to our young athletes at all levels of sport the importance of behaving the right way, so that, hopefully, the majority of those young people who make it to the ultimate levels of their sport turn around and demonstrate to the young people looking up to them the ideals of great character, integrity, and class.
While it may take a while to happen, it will definitely be worth the wait.