ADSactly Sports: Heroes? How Much Should We Idolize Professional Athletes?
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Last week I had a student come up to me and start talking about the NHL playoffs and his favourite team, the Philadelphia Flyers. I often have conversations with my students about sports because I am passionate about sports and I am so heavily involved with them. Many of the students I teach and coach are also passionate about sports and they happen to watch a lot of professional sports. During this particular conversation, this young man made the following comment: “Claude Giroux is the best player ever, he is my hero!” He said it with such enthusiasm and passion that you could tell he meant what he was saying. This caused me to pause a moment and think to myself. My thoughts immediately went to a writing assignment I had done with students the previous year. Students were asked to write about someone who was a hero to them. A surprising number of those projects were written about professional athletes. The more I thought about this the more concern started to boil up in me. Heroes? Really?
Hero defined:
A person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.
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A hero is someone who “we” determine to have demonstrated behaviors and decisions that are ethically and emotionally worthy of our awe. We see in them something we think is not in us. Given similar conditions, we “think” we might not make the same moves and decisions they do, so we place them in an elevated place in society or in our minds. What is a hero? Someone who inspires us by their example.
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Hero is a word that is often used to describe great acts of bravery in war or efforts made to lift up the lives of people who are living in oppression and other human inequalities. It is those people who are the ones deserving of the term hero and yet more and more people are referring to professional athletes as heroes. Why is this happening? Does being great at a sport warrant the designation of hero? When did being an elite athlete lift you up to status equal with a police officer or a fireman or even a doctor? Are athletes the people we want our children looking up to as role models. I think that there are many professional athletes that demonstrate qualities that we would like our kids to possess and of course we can admire athletic talents and skills that our children can aspire to equal. All I am saying is that I think we need to be careful how easily we throw around the term “hero”.
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Taking a look at the definition of a hero there is really only one part that stands out as an immediate link to athletes. Elite athletes regularly perform feats of athletic prowess that leave the everyday person in awe. Watching Lebron James take over a basketball game and put up a triple-double in a dominating performance is impressive. Watching Julio Jones get 300 yards receiving in a game leaves us dumbfounded. We see stars do amazing things all the time in their respective sports. Records are broken all the time and we pay homage to the newest and biggest stars in the game. Odell Beckham Jr made a jaw-dropping one-handed catch in his rookie season and a star was born. Are we comparing these actions to the amazing abilities of superheroes?
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We are amazed by these athletic performances because they are things that most of us could never do. It is human nature to admire greatness and cheer for the accomplishments of great athletes. We have been doing it since the days of Ancient Greece and the beginning of the Olympics tradition. We can go even farther back to ancient Rome and the battles of the Gladiators. We put these physical and athletic specimens on a pedestal. I can admit that as a sports fan I cheer for great athletes along with the rest of the die-hard fans around the world. I talk about their accomplishments as though they were great acts of God and envy their abilities but never have I used the term hero to describe even my most adored players.
Once we look past the “outstanding achievements” the definition of hero takes a very moral turn. “Courage” and “noble qualities” jump right off the page. These are the types of character traits that speak to someone who is willing do the right thing when it is not easy. Being willing to sacrifice of yourself in order to look out for the interest, safety and well being. A person who puts the needs of others ahead of their own and even seeks out opportunities to work towards helping those less fortunate or those in need. This speaks volumes to me about how high we should be propping professional athletes up and who we should truly be looking to as our everyday heroes.
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If you are paying attention to the news at all then you have already started to get where I might be going with this. We are regularly hearing stories about some of the “not so noble” things that our “idols” are doing. From drugs to domestic abuse and everything in between we are constantly finding out that these so-called heroes, the people who many children are looking to as role models, are far from. There are stories of athletes being involved in fighting with fans, carrying weapons and even illegal dogfighting. Do we want our children idolizing people who will do unspeakable things and show no signs of remorse?
Aaron Hernendez - Charged with murder
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Over the years many athletes have been at the forefront of unsavoury incidents. Some of the most recent incidents include:
| Player | Date | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| Aldon Smith | NFL | Domestic abuse charges |
| Michael Bennett | NFL | Accused of pushing a 68 year old woman down |
| Tiger Woods | PGA | Charged with DUI |
| Michael Phelps | Swimmer | Charged with DUI |
| Adrian Peterson | NFL | Child Abuse |
| Charles Barkley | NBA | Assault charges and gambling |
| Allen Iverson | NBA | Several arrests including gun charges |
| Alex Rodriguez | MLB | PED’s |
| Manny Ramirez | MLB | Battery Charges |
| Slava Voyanov | NHL | Domestic Abuse |
Source 1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4, Source 5
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These are just a few of the many cases you will learn about if you pay attention to the sports news. There are new incidents happening all the time. What really stands out about these things is not just the regularity in which they happen but how easily these legal problems seem to go away or how long it takes to actually come to the decision to charge someone. One example of this stands out to me as a fan standing on the sidelines hearing about all this stuff happening. The Michael Bennett issue happened at last years Super Bowl, 2017. Yet, it took until March of 2018 before this man held accountable for his actions. How is it possible that something like shoving an old lady to the ground to get past her swept under the rug for that long? You can be sure that if you or I was the offender, in this case, we would have spent some time in the back of a police car right away. Why are these athletes not being held to the same standards as the rest of us? Not only does this happen at the pro level but also through the college and high school ranks. The papers are riddled with stories of young star athletes that got into trouble and were able to skirt through with little more than a slap on the wrist. We must protect our stars!
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By no means do I want to paint a picture of doom and gloom when it comes to athletes. There are a great number of athletes that are doing things the right way and setting a tremendous example for young people. We do here lots of stories about athletes that donate money and time to charities and who make the dreams some fans come true by spending time with them in the hospital or inviting them to special events. Do these things sound heroic? Or are these things that any public figure should strive to do? There are a lot of people without the same means that do these things every day without being recognized for their efforts the way a pro athlete would be.
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The term role model is defined as “a person whose behavior, example, or success is or can be emulated by others, especially younger people”
Athletes are role models whether or not they choose to take on the responsibility, and whether they are good or bad role models. But athlete “hero worship” wasn’t always as prevalent as it is today. There was a time when others served as America’s role models (civic leaders, clergy, legal and medical experts, etc.). It might be argued that the shift reflects decay in our nation’s moral standards.
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The reality is that the idolization of elite athletes is not likely to change any time soon. Their position in society is such that we are going to look up to them and envy them. It is human nature to stand in awe of those who are about to accomplish great athletic feats. I can understand this glorifying of their abilities but I really think society needs to take a step back when it comes to using the term hero. Next time you go to refer to your favourite player asw a hero, take a moment to reconsider what a hero is. We have people in society that put themselves in harms way every day for the betterment of the world and to keep others safe.
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Do we really think that an amazing goal, or a 50 yard touchdown is more heroic than pulling a family out of a burning building? Admire athletes endeavours on the court, ice or field for what they are and save the term “hero” for the people who truly deserve it.
Do you idolize any athletes? What are your thoughts about athletes being role models or called heroes? I would love to read your stories and hear about who your heroes are.
Authored by @broncofan99
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From childhood children make someone their ideal as a hero which are mostly sports man. They make their standard of viewing and supporting according to their favorite athletes.
It’s true. In many cases people become fans of a certain team because of their admiration of the athlete.
Throughout history people have always sought for idols, someone to look up to, someone to adore. Some people admired tyrants (which was usually problematic as you can't know who really admired them and who was forced to), some admired glorious warriors/archers/knights and some admired Gladiators.
Obviously, today we live in different times. Tyrants are less abundant, warriors, as in soldiers, do get some fame from time to time (as Chris Kyle got thanks to the movie “American Sniper”), but then again, that's pretty rare, and as for politicians, usually they are not exactly "Idol Material", so.... We idolize sports players!
Sport players are often named "The Gladiators of the 20th/21st Century". That's because just like the Gladiators, sport players make thousands of people gather around in stadiums, cheering, shouting and consuming some entertainment, all of that, thanks to them.
Obviously this tells us why sport players are popular, but does not answer your question. Well, one of the major reasons we idolize sports players is the fact that they do what they (and we) love for living! They get to play your favorite sports, do it remarkably well, and get paid for it (like really well paid). Moreover, they are usually good looking, surrounded by pretty girls and very confident, all of which are considered desired characteristics among us, humans. If we want to look into it biologically, the reason we idolize sport players is because we find them better gene carriers than us, and in one level or another we want to be like them, knowing it is not possible, we settle with idolizing them.
Thank you for the meaningful comment. Your statement makes perfect sense. If someone is able to do something that we can only imagine being able to do and we see them have money, cars and the admiration of the world then it is natural for us to idolize them. I just think we need to be careful how much we push that onto our kids. We should look for them to be great people as well as great athletes.
People tend to create idols for themselves. Although this is a violation of one of the commandments of the bible. But there is nothing bad that would imitate a worthy person who shows the right example. It can be simple people who do heroic things. Why do not we imitate those people who help the homeless and sacrifice the time to help those who need help? But apparently it's a utopia.
What do we see in the real world? People become fans of non-existent characters in movies or games. People feed themselves illusions. The same can be said about the "great" athletes. Yes, sport is good and no one disputes with this. Sportsmen perform several roles. In one of them - these are talented people who delight the audience with their achievements (or game). But another role is public life. Yes they are successful and they have all the dreams of millions of other people. This is the main reason for fanaticism.
I read a lot about the "back" side of famous sportsmen or even actors and politicians. Many of them are at the center of scandals. Glory turns their heads. Your article opens your eyes to such right things. We began to forget where the real heroes are. It is not necessary to be famous to perform heroic and worthy deeds.
Thank you, this is a great article that must be read!
You make some very valid arguments and I can understand your frustration. Sports has become such a huge entertainment machine that we are constantly inundated with images and stories of the great things these athletes do and we glorify so readily.
I think heroes come and go. I know a couple of certified war heroes and they are no different today than you and me. When it was time to make a choice they made the choice to do a thing that made them a 'hero'. That made no particular difference in the rest of their lives.
I really see no particular problem with admiring athletes for what they can do. Most of them not only win the genetic lottery, but work incredibly hard to perfect their craft. The problem comes from thinking that their 'heroic action' makes them somehow better or different than their fellow humans. They aren't.
Thank you for an incredibly well thought and presented post. Just the quality and quantity of the comments speaks volumes to the words you wrote. I'd say you are one of my heroes.
I think your comment speaks to part of what makes heroes who they are. They do what they do out of a desire to help and change wrongs. At the end of the day they are just like you and me and do not seek out recognition for their actions. Thanks for the kind words, I am certainly no hero though.
I have a friend who collect this marvel super heroes and spent tons amount of money on it. I feel sorry for him. If only the school teach us to save money and to use it to buy assets or money making machine like steemit. He can accumulate and do not work for the rest of his life. Great post @adsactly
I have over 2000 comic books from a young age. They're actually worth a lot of money now.
I was always a big fan of super heroes and comics grwoing up. There should be a comic book of super heroes athletes. Marvel made a documentary about it.
You are right! In my childhood even now (or before reading your post). If you asked me to write an essay about “who is my hero” first thing that pops in my head is professional athlete, perhaps two, three, four... all of them would be athletes. Ok, with one exception, my dad. But he past away when I was 10. Perhaps all kids before writing any essay about “hero”, should be educated about what actually being a hero means.
Reading all this criminal history of well known athletes makes me doubt my hero ideas. For example Michael Phelps. He definitely was in my “hero” book, now he is my idol or a role model. Obviously people representing the law think the same way, just like many of us. Protecting them, making privileges or simply money talks sometimes. You are right. Better definition for honest and hard working professional athletes should be “a role models”. Who is my hero now? I will have to think about it...
Anyway, great post!
Great comment, I am in the same boat myself at times. I find myself putting these great athletes on a pedestal but I think it important that we stop and think about how much admiration these athletes are getting and why. Enjoy them for what they are. Great athletes do not always equal great people.
I don’t think it’s such a problem to idolize someone who works hard and perfects his craft and you realize the value of what hard work, talent and refining your craft has brought that person
It only becomes a problem when they become more than that, when they become a brand, when they become put into cult status while still activiely playing its only going to put too much pressure on the player or it goes to their head and they lose track of what got them their in the first place
Also putting this players under that kinda pressure isn’t for everyone they are still human and if you’re not mentally strong it can easily break you! How many sports stars have we seen fall down the path towards glory and end up broke or with a substance abuse problem, the celebrity status we give sports stars can quickly become toxic
This is such a great point and well stated. Athletes don’t ask to be heroes. They grow up wanting to be great at their sports but they don’t ask to be someone’s role model or idol. This responsibility is thrust on them by media and fans. Then we beat them down when they make mistakes. I am so glad for your comment. Their are many sides to this issue.
Oh I completely agree and yes they get paid a lot of money but it doesn’t mKe them any less human their careers are short and they literally putting their body on the line each week for our entertainment so I think they do deserve a fair compensation if you retired at say 35 you still have 50 years to live off that money raise a family and all that life brings post career! Not every player gets a coaching or media role afterwards
Look we all have a bad day, yes you a proffesional and yes the fans can criticize you if you played badly or did something silly that’s fine but the way the media and fans rip into atheletes these days it’s almost sickening!
The trap way too many people fall into is the idea that role models exist as x,y, or z. In reality people that deserve to be looked up to are everywhere.
Role models can also be polarizing people too. Colin Kaepernick and Tim Tebow are two great examples of people that use their platform to make a point or personify an idea. To millions those two are heroes and to that many more those two are opportunists with an agenda.
I understand your point and it's important to teach young people that because a person excels at something doesn't make that person extra in any other way.
I will encourage my children to look for leaders and people to look up to in roles my boys are interested in. If that's sports or music I'll encourage them to find quality role models in sports and music. If it's coding or enforcing laws I'd do the same.
The important takeaway is there are role models and shitty people in all walks of life.
I completely agree with your statement. There are a lot of great leaders in professional sports. People who take the opportunity to use their position to do good things and make strong statements. I even state this in my article. I think we need to take the time to find the good ones and respect and acknowledge their leadership efforts. Does this make them a hero though?
Muhammad Ali, Jessie Owens, and Jackie Robinson are 100% heroes. These guys are civil rights giants and should be recorded in history as peers of Rosa Parks and Malcolm X. I can't think of anything more heroic than doing something to the best of your ability in the face of overwhelming adversity.
Stan Musial, Ted Williams, and my god Pat Tillman are heroes. These guys sacrificed years of their careers, one even lost his life defending an idea. Selflessness and sacrifice are heroic qualities.
Those are some amazing examples!!! For sure there are athletes that are heroes. These people would have been heroes no matter what they did. They were amazing humans.
The most intriguing point that you made, I think, is that you gave a writing assignment and many students chose, of all possible choices, professional athletes. I'd be quite concerned too! So that I have a little more context, may I ask the general group of your students?
I don't follow professional sports very much, myself. But even I know titans like Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps; I hadn't realized that Phelps also had DUI's! That's disappointing for sure...
You more or less already summarize my thoughts on the topic - the word "hero" might simply not mean to others what it means to us. Some of us think of those who sacrifice or risk much to help or save others, but professional sports players are, as by job description, competing to be the in the top rank. Nothing wrong with that, just doesn't feel heroic. And we can all still at least admire the amount of training that they do to get to where they are, not just anyone can pull that off. Dedication to self improvement is an excellent thing to be a role model for... Unless the training is so intense it might sap willpower from other things that matter? I can only speculate on the lapses of judgment from many famous sports players...
But competing to be the top, in my view, is admirable but not heroic. I feel that many heroes simply are invisible, maybe nameless to us, and therefore we don't have as strong a connection to them. When they're successful, things are normal, if they falter, things become tragic. It's not as fun to think too much about these things - yay, I'm still alive! Or oh no, my pet had to be put down...
Looks line my post is getting really long, so I'll put down a team of heroes to me : all the people of the world who worked together to eradicate smallpox. It's such an abstract thing, it's gone and doesn't affect me, but only because people like William Foege (Author of House on Fire, an account of the eradication of smallpox) and his coworkers dedicated themselves to its destruction. I admire what they did, and yet it feels weird to say so... Their triumph, though monumental, was in the past, and is proven by something that just isn't happening anymore. If I want to cheer them on, I have to learn of more people trying to eradicate different diseases, but then they're facing a lot of hard, maybe boring work, and a lot of frustration...
This is such a great and well thought out comment. I agree that most of today’s real heroism are indeed , invisible. They don’t seek out attention for their actions. I teach grade 8 students btw. Thank you for sharing your ideas.
For sure!
Thanks you @adsactly Your post is great.
Then, we could to have heroes very close, but no one talk about them. Possibly this heroes, deserve more than one we are talking every day. Teachers, doctors, mothers, fathers, and simple person giving the best of them, but invisible for most of the people. We are as that. I am going to do a difference with my people, telling them, what I am watching about them.
That's part of what makes these people heroes. They do the things they do for the benefit of people in need, not for the recognition and money.
@broncofan99 You are right. Do the things when others are needing or in difficult situation. It is big. This deserves our people speak about.
Thanks for your big heart and exceptional judgment.
Good one...:)...
There are many noble athletes who look participate in social injustices. Lebron James is a good example!
Hello @adsactly .I agree with you most of the athletes today dont really deserve to be called Heroes.But one super athlete comes to mind that was willing to sacrifice all for what he knew was right and he did.I am talking about the Late G.O.A.T Mohammed Ali,when he refused to be drafted to fight the vietnamese.When he helped free some hostages and all his other great deeds .He is an Hero in my book.
He is a great example of someone who was not only a great athlete but also a great humanitarian. I’m not saying that there are no heroes among athletes but rather that weshould consider why we call them heroes. Mohammad Ali is certainly someone who could qualify for the hero tag.
Thanks you @adsactly Your post is great.
Regards.
FS
@adsactly Great article and point of view! Congratulations in all of our success here with Steemit. I can tell this piece took a long time to make. Thanks again.
Thanks for the kind words.
idolizing anyone is good to a certain extent but not where you think they are worth more than yourself as we are all equal, just some have more money and materialistic things.
They should, they are superheros!
Great article! I enjoyed it from top to the bottom!
I think what we do nowadays, we are calling stars our heroes. It's like the word hero lost it's meaning. We are kinda brainwashed by TV and we think that everything happens there.
The fame gets to athletes at a very young age and it corrupts them a bit. Don't get me wrong, there are exceptional professional athletes there, but nowadays most of them think they conquered the world. I think with great power comes great responsibility and if they can impact people, most of all children, then they should take that responsibility.
I hope that children and people will not search for idols and heroes. Firstly they can find that in themselves. Secondly, we must know what are stars and what are heroes, then we can decide rightly.
Thanks so much for sharing this beautiful article! Have a wonderful day!
So well put. The fact that our children believe everything they see on television or the internet to be the truth of the world is kinda scary. We need to teach these kids to be critical thinkers. Great comment!
Everything is with certain limits, everything in excess is bad, so we must be vigilant (in the case of our children) of who are the possible heroes of our children, many times the sportsmen are very young people who are carried away by fame and money, being this mixture fatal, the dopamine tends to alter and the excesses begin to win over the reason, in my pias we have outstanding sportsmen, for example in the baseball, young boys that muhas times do not pass through a university and they feel like owners of the world, by the fanaticism, one of those boys was filmed giving a beating to his girlfriend, without apparent reason! this video I would never want my son to see! It's not the kind of education I want him to have, so no end is good, so we can keep him from following the negative behaviors he may see in some athletes.
I understand your concern and I feel it is important as parent to discuss these things with our kids. Discus why they feel athletes are hero’s and teach them to think critically about the topic.
You have a little reason, but you should not take the opinion of those young people or children about what they are hero so be an athlete or whatever, because most are fixed in a person and determined by the hero capacity that they see in them and to which they want to arrive one day, maybe it is not the correct word hero, but more as an example to follow. Every man is a hero for the simple fact of dying not only athletes or firemen, policemen, nurse etc.
You also cataloged the professions as a hero only and it is not like that, all people at some point we are, because doing good causes makes us heroes. What I'm trying to say is that you do not understand a man until you understand what's taking him to do what he does. Each man is the hero of his own story
That’s a great point. We should always seek to understand the path travelled before we judge.
I think we shouldn't really idolize Athlete's they're doing what they know best and should be recommend for that.. They are not heroes.. Heroes are out there saving the lives of people... Liberating people into freedom.. Those are the heroes.
That is a great way to look at this. Athletes are to be cheered for. Heroes are something different.
Exactly
as if it is an activity that can nourish our body, I really like the sport, because if we often exercise our body will be fresh and we become more durable, you are a great and very experienced in the field of sports, I am very proud of the same you, your post is very useful for me, thanks for the post @adsactly
Thanks for reading.
oce, i support you
No one wishes to be identified as an ingrate, everyone wants to be popular and have some sort of heroic traits..... However, the outcome in most cases don't seem to turn out so well, we only hope people would have a better understanding of what it means to be heroic and try to live by it.
Good point. Sometimes becoming the admiration of others can have a negative impact on people. Some athletes struggle with their success and act out because of this.
Great share and topic. The way media portrays athletes are heroic and someone everyone should be like if they pursue sports. If kids are sports enthusiasts or play any sports, they are most likely going to look at the athlete as a hero due to their popularity.
I look at it in a perspective from when I was a kid. I looked at these athletes as a great figure, but as I got older and less interested in sports, that thought faded away. I believe this is what happens with most children as they get older.
@adsactly
You are right. We grow up playing these sports and watching athletes and it is natural to look up to them and want to be like them. Kids talk about athletes as if they have saved the world sometimes.
we should not idolize, give our energy or money to athletes,war heroes, politicians, movie-stars, tv celebs, or any other public figure... if they want to do what they do, fine, but it will give you nothing back....
what you post about is old... the Romans did this way back...!! and it still works, stupid man brain.....!! ( human means monster by the way... ) propaganda, words, ego, jealousy and,and, and.......
Mankind is still worshiping heroes after thousands of years of bloodshed, hate, envy and so on... we all know it as "divide and conquer...!!"
making somebody more special then all the others. the 0.001% is doing this, and keeping it strong....!! there is a brain mind-fuck overhaul needed to change our view about the way we look at sport, war and other hero's.
and there is also a lot of it here on Steemit...!! plankton and whales... WTF...!!
the world is infested with 7 things... if you ever find a way to live your life without one of these symptoms... call me..!!
1 Luxuria: Lust
2 Gula: Gluttony
3 Avaritia: Greed
4 Acedia: Sloth
5 Ira: Wrath
6 Invidia: Envy
7 Superbia: Pride
and please... do not lie to yourselves, your soul knows...
These are very strong opinions and you can see how this has continued through time. As humans we sometimes seem destined to repeat the same things over and over again. That is why I’m hoping people will stop to think critically about calling people heroes.
Very interesting article and so true.
I think if you followed up that question as to 'why' are they your hero, you'd get some pretty aweful sounding answers.
".....ummm.... he has won three superbowls in a row."
"He's gone 7 year undefeated and defended the title over 12 times...."
So that makes him a 'hero'?
A different example could be:
"Doctor Jones is my hero. He saved my mom after a serious car accident and many peoples lives as well. He's never been hot headed about how talented he is and how great of a person he is for many families."
Great article and so true!
Absolutely what I am talking about here. So many athletes are lifted to hero status in the minds of fans because of great athletic accomplishments. Those feats are incredible and DO deserve praise and admiration but by no means should they be called heroes. I think the word has lost its meaning over the years.
This is great stuff! Lots of folks have responded and clearly this hits a chord with so many of us! Our kids do not need to think they can jump on “easy street“ and get a free ride. As most of us know, a small fraction of kids playing recreational or high school sports, college even, become the elite professional athletes. Likewise, very few aspiring musicians and other performers become the highly paid of that group. There certainly can be value in aspiring to be “the best.“ Not only that, many of these “heroes“ do embody the ethical and moral characteristics associated with a true hero. But as we all know, too often these young “heroes“ don’t know what to do with their newfound stardom and make a blunder of it! Obviously, no individual can change what our society has set up overnight. But we can all make changes by seriously thinking about our own interactions with young people, especially by example. And also, think about where we spend our dollars$$$$$
Great comment and so true. We posted an article about the chances of making to the pros a few weeks ago. It’s not very high. Let’s twach our kids and young athletes to be good people and show them what real heroes are. Recognize the professional athletes for the entertainment product they are. Thrilling and sometimes amazing but at the end of the day, entertainment.
Yes, absolutely!!!
wow.. all heros aee here
How much?
As much as their hard work, persistence and leadership justifies it. There is little to emulate in the gifts of others, though.
Some people are gifted athletically and some aren't. Worshiping the gift (and not all the things that bring that gift to fruition) is a total waste. Many people have outstanding athletic gifts, but never get ahead because they lack the ACTUAL PRAISEWORTHY ATTRIBUTES that we should emulate, and so we never hear about them, because they wind up wasting their gift.
There are many people who good be great at a lot of things but choose to different things. Can you imagine if Nikola Tesla hadn't decided to work with electricity?
True, but I was trying to answer the original question.
In brief, emulate the hard work, good character (of those athletes who have it,) persistence, etc., of great athletes, but not their gift. We can get (or increase) a good work ethic, better character, persistence, by their example, BUT WE WILL NEVER GET THEIR GIFT, by emulating theirs.
oh, I completely agree. They are gifted but are able to take that gift to the next level because of their efforts. We should indeed emulate these qualities of hard work and persistence.
Well said @adsactly.
I have never understood how people treat the movie starts or the best athletes in the world or musicians as heroes and what I really don't understand is that when these famous people do something wrong/crime people still love them and support them like if nothing ever happened. People would do anything and everything for someone famous.
Hereo is someone who does something for someone else, not themselves. Hereos save lives, they change people lives for the better, they help and especially when they put their own lives to save others.
Well said!! Admire athletes for what they are and maybe save the term hero for those who truly earn it.
well they are also humans like you and i. And they are bound to make mistakes every now and then
Very well put. It makes me shift my perspective on the word hero and the euphemistic characteristics that are given to athletes. Thank you.
It’s just food for thought. We should always think critically about these things.
its very easy for upcoming generation to view sportsmen and women as their heroes because they are easily seen
I'm sorry but in my opinion... Athletes are not heroes .. They are paid to play a game... Real heroes are the men and women who are military and first responders that protect us.. The doctors and nurses that save lives.. The people who go to work each day to support their families.... Theses are heroes and they should be idolized... We may see values and morals come back if this were so...
Those are the people that make a true difference in our lives each and every day. Without them, athletes wouldn't necessarily be enjoying the luxury of playing sports for a living in the first place.
No only athletes but artiste and other celebrities. I feel that no matter their personal lifestyles we idolise them because of the way they play or their professionalism not their personal behavoiurs or charaters. You (author), your studies might idolise you because of your professionalism and not your personality and I love the aspect of not only looking at their professionalism but also their personality. Nice work
Voted sir @adsactly as witness.
Awesome!!
@adsactly Well said.
Glad you think so. What was your favourite part?
life as been so extraordinary,people who love great things always encourage life to be fantastic to the youth,i really do like your act of teaching boss..
Speech The title hero is given to the defenders of truth who dare to fight evil. Not the one defending the team.
There is nothing heroic about being an athlete, in many cases they are not even sporty
nice post great info
@adsactly, you are a good sport analyst. Ride on,and I pray one of those club picked you as their coach.
When we get older, our attention is no longer on heroes. We focus more on how we gonna face the reality of leaving this world regardless of how much wealth or success we have achieved.
I am also like marvel heroes. I have lot of friends who make idle this marvel heroes. My friends like them and my younger brother always see their movies. In childhood every children likes super heroes. They want to be hero like them. Some people waste after this. They are big fan.
You really should read this post. It is very well written and thought out. You are cheating yourself by commenting on a post based on the first picture. This post has not one thing to do with Marvel Heroes.
I decided not to flag you, but please at least pretend to read a post before you comment.
It's a good pist friends (y)
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Very interesting.
As in India people are crazy about IPL the same craze is about Rugby and baseball too in your country