Are Afl Footballlers Positive Role Models?

ARE AFL FOOTBALLLERS POSITIVE ROLE MODELS?

Section 8: A piece intended to present a point of view persuasively

What is exactly a role model? Wikipedia says it’s a person who fills his or her role as a good or bad example for others. A good example is a positive example. A bad example is a negative role model. As a society sports people are usually the role models for Australian children in Melbourne the role model fir the children are the AFL footballers. They are the role models because they are the kind of person the children want to be. Recent events in the football community such as: rape, drug use, illegal betting, traffic offences and assaults dampen the idea of them being a positive role model changes to them being a negative role model. Which genius decided that AFL footballers should be role models? Because obviously if their off field antics is as bad as it is they don’t deserve to be role models all they deserve to be is locked up.

The major disgrace belongs to West Coast’s Ben Cousins. This man is meant to embody “the best and fairest” that the AFL competition has to offer and his Brownlow medal is a testament to that. He is also the captain of last years premiership runners up side and is one of the leagues highest paid stars, worth half a million dollars per year. Yet he has links with under world figures, drug dealers as caught on tape by police this year. He came out saying he was a drug addict and went to American to fight his addiction in an American rehab clinic. Cousins has also been caught drink driving as well as being caught abandoning his car on a Perth free way due to knowing there was a booze bus up ahead. He was also arrested in Melbourne last December spent a night in a cell due to his drunkenness in a public place. Would you want your son or daughter to have this man as their role model? There have been a number or players also been caught up in the illicit drugs like Cousins these include: Brendan Fevola; Carlton, Lawrence Angwin; Carlton, Daniel Kerr; West Coast, Michael Gardiner; St Kilda and Aaron Edwards; Kangaroos. People ask were these players pushed into taking drugs, I disagree they jumped into it. In my view they are just overpaid prima donnas with a history of selfishness. All they care about is themselves not the kids that are looking at their every move wanting to be like their role models. These kinds of behaviours show that AFL footballers are NOT positive role models rather negative role models.

It’s very disappointing. These players need to realise that they become a high profile public figure when they become successful in the AFL. This leads to them being role models. It’s either that fact or the big money that seems to go straight to the player’s heads. They think they are above normal social status so they can get away with anything they like. These players need to deal with the fact that they are public figures and act accordingly. The clubs need to grow some balls and fine these players heavily or simply sack them. Basically clubs need to educate the players better about what is socially acceptable behaviour and crack down on them when those lines are crossed. In 2006 at least 20 players found themselves in strife with either the police or their clubs. Considering there is only 22 rounds in a home and away season this means almost weekly there was a player being a negative role model. This shows the Australian children, that it’s ok to do the wrong thing like speeding. In particular 3 players in 2006 were caught speeding, one of which avoided jail term by pleading guilty of his four driving charges. This is precisely the sort of examples the AFL should be discouraging, but it’s also the sort of behaviour which shows that AFL footballers are not positive role models.

Assaults and brawls are one of the most common misbehaviour among AFL players. In June this year one of the AFL bad boys Chris Tarrant led the Fremantle Dockers into a pub brawl at a popular Darwin night spot. The Tarrant ‘scuffle’ has left one staff member unconscious, a politician bashed, locals shocked and a poor woman with the horrible image of Tarrant’s pimply white arse burned into her retinas. This isn’t the only time Tarrant has been involved in a person becoming