Are footballers role models?

[stui magpie]

Ffs im not talking about peers, im talking about 15 year olds entering the footy system or playing local footy.

Narrowing the scope to pre school kids is ridiculous because of course it proves the argument about footballers not being their role models.

[Brenny]

David,

Out of curiosity, hypothetical, you have a son who is 7 or 8yo a mad Collingwood supporter and he comes home and says he wants tattoos because Dane Swan has tattoos or piercings or something and he wants to be like Dane Swan.

I'm just curious what you would do, as a father. What would you tell your son?

PS sorry Stui, that may have been my fault talking about impressionable young kids around 8yo who hear things that don't know any better.

[David]

Brenny, I don't really see how that could even be a serious issue. There's obviously nothing empirically wrong with tattoos anyway; I'd just explain to him that you have to be an adult to get a tattoo because it lasts forever and it's a big decision, so he has to wait until he's 18. If that's not enough, that's what fake tattoos are for! Or pantyhose 'sleeves'.

[Nash Rising]

Even if they don't want to be and try everything to prevent it, the answer is yes

[David]

^ Why? Just because you say so, or...?

[pietillidie]

The amusing part of this discussion is that the people who crap on about "personal responsibility" are often the same ones who think sportspeople have magical powers over the population and thus should be placed under strict controls.

It looks a lot more like bitter folk blaming sportspeople for refusing to do the babysitting for them to me. How about spending some decent time with your kids and surrounding them with quality adult friends and associates?

If you don't have the time, money or psychological wherewithal to do so, you have my understanding and sympathy. But that has nothing to do with footballers at all whatsoever.

Honestly, does anyone actually think a footballer player is even a thousandth as important to a child's development as a compassionate and decent adult who is involved directly in the child's life? get a bloody grip would you!

You can't discard common sense and re-write the entire discipline of psychology just to explain away your own frustrations. When it comes to your kids, Dane Swan is not your Huckleberry.

[September Zeros]

Just did a little net search myself, seems only those publications supporting the negative have been conveniently displayed here followed by a lot of strongly opinionated people cheering in support of "putting the question to bed" and jeering in rapid response to to any one who opposes.

Couple of things to massage your grey matter....

Just because you put a few bits and pieces of internet research together doesn't make you 100% correct boys and girls. Little more statistical support wouldn't go astray either. I know much of this topic must be measured qualitatively...but that's even more reason for an exhaustive layout of research and not just a convenient one. Otherwise your putting nothing to bed.

Are they roles models..... I don't know ......but I'll tell you one thing I won't do and thats just dismiss people who believe they may be.

Footballers are often idolised, they are often looked up to as champions, and small kids (sometimes also big ones) often try to replicate thier footballing heroes in the back yard. When they try to kick a daicos banana from the forward pocket with the number 35 on thier back are they role playing? Are they modelling thier football style on thier hero.

The question had naught to do with drugs but simply asked "are footballers role models" is it possible from a football perspective they are? And from an everything else in life point of view (including drugs etc) they completely are not?

Don't jump on me friends ......just asking a few more layed back and lazy Christmas night questions on the matter while I munch on a ham sandwich.

[September Zeros]

P.S. I should not have eaten that sandwich.

[pietillidie]

^The problem is you're using the term "role model" as if it carries magical powers when it's plainly an empty term with no actual meaning either technically or within this discussion beyond something trivial like "public persona it would be good to emulate".

In psychology it simply has no meaning at all; "significant others" is the term people are probably groping about for, and that group of intimates does not include cartoon characters, rock stars, fairy tale archetypes or sportspeople who frequent the TV screen. These are decidedly insignificant others who merely shadow the broader culture and are presumably selected in by the pre-existing psychology of the child which was set long before in interaction with significant others.

If you want to look beyond immediate attachment and care givers the data you look at is in the culture. And culture in turn is pretty much a reflection of socio-economic conditions; stable, wealthy, fair and coherent cultures provide good environments for kids to grow up in (and in turn good environments for parents to parent). The rest is genetic difference, individual difference (some deviant, some not), and of course imaginary crap invented by people whose brains hurt when they try to do serious thinking about anything but who know someone needs to be held accountable for that pain in their gut.

One does marvel at how out of touch with their own psychologies conservative authoritarians are. They get these things back-to-front on cue almost without fail, blaming and punishing some group of poor sods who have as much to do with the problem as the moons of Jupiter, meanwhile opposing the social spending required to improve the culture in which they live--the very thing which we know does have a massive impact on the problem.

Go figure!

[neil]

[Nash Rising]

[Big T]

Of course they are role models. Examples

Aspiring rapists would see St Kilda players as role models
Aspiring mafia bag men would see Carlton FC as a role model
Aspiring drug addicts would look up to West Coast elite players
Aspiring white collar criminals would love to spend time with Sydney and Adelaide players

And so forth

[David]

[neil]

[Brenny]

I think I've got a better grasp on the angle that Neil is coming from.

Accepted.

Should we then be splitting the term 'Role Model' into two then.

Off Field: They are not role models, just simply people who play football.

On Field: They can be positive role models... work ethic, confidence, hard work, keeping healthy and so on? Surely on this side of it they can encourage kids (pre teen and teens) to work hard to reach their goals.

Or should we all together just scrap the whole idea of 'Role Model' and even 'Hero' and just see them as people who play sport?