I remember when I was a child I spent countless hours shooting hoops and practicing and working on my basketball skills because that’s what Michael Jordan did. I was one of those kids that fell in the “Want to be like Mike” pool. I didn’t know his political views, I didn’t know much of his personal life - all I knew was I wanted to be like him on the court. Nowadays, I am glad that I am not a child where I look up to these current athletes, I now know better and know my personal morals. Here are just two quick reasons why I state this. Remember this is just my personal view, you can agree or disagree and we are all entitled to our own thoughts and opinions.

1. Social Media

“Don’t press send!” true words from Herm Edwards, we live in a time where we all fail at this at times. While social media is nice and people can feel somewhat connected to their sports role model, it can quickly take a turn for the worst. Athletes fail to realize that they are in the public eye, that there are children looking up to them. Though they didn’t ask for it, this is the reality of their situation. For example, Nick Young admitting to committing infidelity while his teammate Russell recorded him unknown to Young.

2. Justice and Morals

Punishment is never really dealt out to sports superstars, it is more so brushed under a rug or a small slap on the wrist. With this Athletes believe that they can get away with anything, for example, Hope Solo and her domestic violence history, Greg Hardy and his domestic violence case against his girlfriend, Jameis Winston stealing crabs and the multiple things he did at FSU, and these are just a couple. Morals, athletes these days seem to lack morals for example, Adrian Peterson and his seven children with different women and his beatings of them, Nick Young cheating that was mentioned earlier, Lebron James having two kids before he was married (which is becoming the normal thing nowadays)

These are just a couple of reasons and moments in professional sports history and why I am glad to be an adult and know where I draw the line but kids are growing up watching this unfold and they aren’t told it's wrong or know where to draw line, so history ends up repeating itself. For future NFL stars you can see the domestic assaults and charges start in college (Baylor University to be the latest) and in some cases high schools. With these stories and images bombarding the TV and internet kids are growing up thinking and believing that if they become big enough stars and get enough money then no matter what they do they will get away with it, they think that they will become untouchable from Justice. Now I am not saying that all athletes are terrible and have little to no morals, I am just bringing light to this public issue. The fact that there are commercials against domestic violence during an NFL football game says a lot to what is happening in this country.