After reading this article about problems with sport today ( http://bleacherreport.com/articles/24168-a-look-at-the-problems-in-sports-today ) I began to wonder if professional athletes who do not attend college are the reason for some embarrassing and disappointing moments during their sport career. College is the time for young adults to learn life skills and is a maturation period. So should we question professional sports drafting an athlete before they finished college? With that should we change our perception of professional athletes being too old to play when they start reaching their mid to late twenties? I often wonder this point when I see a young professional athlete being taken advantage of by an agent or getting into unnecessary trouble or acting unprofessional because they did not receive proper education and chance to mentally prepare themselves for life in the spot light. But is not attending college the full blame for this or can we include team organizations for not helping out in the education of essential life skills that could be learned through attending college?
M.W.
Kin 577
Matt, you bring up a good point in regards to how mature athletes really are that bypass the collegiate level and head straight to the professional level. I also agree with you that an individual’s time in college is a point in one’s life where you do mature, learn life lessons, and gain some humility. However, I don’t think that bypassing college is solely to blame for the bad behavior and poor choices that some athletes make. Your personality is developed at a very young age along with your behavioral patterns and values. It is my opinion that a lot of blame for the negative behaviors of athletes should be placed on the parents and their ability to raise a child. When you have a child, you make a conscious decision to take responsibility for that child and their behavior. As a parent, if you instill in your kids, the proper moral and ethical values, they are more likely to carry those same values with them to adulthood. However, despite parents’ best efforts, good behavior is not guaranteed in adulthood. Thus, I believe you cannot put all blame on bypassing college, or on bad parenting, but rather a wide variety of issues.
ReplyDeleteN.O.
Kin 577
I found this topic very interesting but when I read the post I couldn’t help but think that it is the sports culture in America to blame. Since when did playing sports become more important than obtaining a college degree. That is the real message organizations and players are sending to the public. The dreams of athletes shouldn’t be to go pro and make big money, the dream should be a college education with a sports career being a bonus. It would be interesting to see how many athletes that went into the pros before graduating college, did after retiring from pro sports. I have a feeling that most would go broke because they are lacking money management skills, the ability to analytically solve problems and plan for the future. The NCAA and professional organizations alike should put more emphasis on college degrees before playing pro. After all athletes are looked upon as role models in our culture and that is not the message I want to imitate.
ReplyDeleteBryce Van Boxtel Kin332i 03 TR 12:30-1:45