Athletes Behaving Badly

It has become common to hear stories about well-known athletes behaving badly. Lets see. We have Plaxico Burris carrying and firing an illegal weapon in a crowded venue; Michael Vick runs a complex illegal operation where dogs are routinely and cruelly tortured and killed for pleasure and profit; lost count of how many arrested for assault on their wives and on and on. We also see professional players who behave disrespectfully on their team (skipping practices, saying bad things about their coaches or team members publicly). I am CERTAIN that these bad apples were years in the making and started with their parents!


My 13 year old son plays baseball and hopes to play for a good team in college and dreams of “making it” to the big leagues. He watches all the games of his beloved Yankees, plays himself every day, and watches sports talk shows. I think that these frequent stories about athletes behaving badly has actually helped groom him to be a player with respect for the game, his coaches, his team mates and himself. It feels like we are always talking about these stories and it gives us a great opportunity to reinforce the values my husband and I are trying to instill in him. Kids do hear these stories but I don’t think it influences them half as much as their parents do. If a child behaves in an unsportsmanlike way he deserves to be dressed down, certainly by his coach. If not, then his parents MUST! If this happens consistently, then do not worry. Your child will not grow up to behave like Plaxico Burris! Most kids usually just need one severe consequence, a few at most, to never behave that way again.

All too often however, we see parents who not only condone their child’s bad behavior in the field but also actually encourage it. Over the years we have seen parents shouting nasty things to kids on the other teams, coaches that encouraged their players to cheat, players that refused to shake hands. What is going on? Can the good mothers get together and say “NO MORE”!

The bad news is that if you think you are going to get help out there to raise an athlete with upstanding ethics- forget it! The burden falls almost completely on us!