Sports Commentary: Not my role model

PETE PAGUAGA — Sports Editor

“I am not a role model, I am not paid to be a role model,” said former NBA player Charles Barkley in his famous Nike commercial.
Barkley couldn’t be more correct. In our society we look up to professional athletes and we idolize them for how great they are at playing a children’s game; and well, it’s pathetic.
Athletes aren’t role models and you shouldn’t expect them to be. Athletes are people who we can look to keep us entertained for that 2-3-hour time span of one of their games.
I can’t stand the people who sit there and tell people that they consider Derek Jeter to be a role model for them. He’s not; he doesn’t even know you exist. His job is to hit a baseball.
As Barkley continued to say in the infamous commercial, “I am paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court.”
Again Sir Charles is correct. Athletes are paid to do their jobs. Granted they are paid a lot of money, but that is another issue for another day.
A role model is someone that you can look up to, relate to and say, “You know what? If I am half the person that my role model is, I will be successful.”
Calling Tim Tebow Your role model is ridiculous. I know he does great things off of the field, but at the end of the day he is only a football player.
Athletes are people with exceptional God-given athletic talent; there is no way you can relate yourself to them. You can not look up to Michael Jordan and say, “I want to be him,” because you will never be him.
A role model is someone you can talk to and get advice from, someone that you can always count on. How can I count on Jeter? I have never met him before in my life and the most I know about him is from what I read.
I am sure some of you are saying, who is your role model then, Pete?
My role model is and will always be Dad. No offense Mom; I love you too. But my father is someone who I can relate to; he is someone I can always count on being able to talk to. I can go to him with any problem or question and he will be there for me.
Most importantly, I can honestly say that if I turn out to be half of the man he is, I would consider myself a success. That, right there, is a role model.
At the end of the Barkley commercial he said, “Parents should be role models; just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.”
Well said, Charles.