Why Professional Athletes Shouldn’t be Role Models: Aaron Hernandez and living in the public eye

Many of us grow up idolizing athletes.  They become celebrities that are revered or hated based on how they perform on the field.  What they do away from what we see on TV matters much less in society’s opinion of them than what they do off of it.  How futile this is as a standard of judgment is apparent in the case of one former NFL star.

 This Wednesday, former New England Patriots Tight End, Aaron Hernandez was convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting of Odin Lloyd.  Hernandez will, pending appeal, serve life in prison without parole.  While the legal battles will continue as Hernandez now faces trial for the murder of two men outside a Boston nightclub, the decision marks an end to the saga that began when Lloyd was found shot to death in an abandoned industrial yard.

Hernandez will now live out much of his life in a prison barely one mile from the stadium where he became one of the NFL’s most dangerous offensive players and thrilled millions with his dazzling agility and speed.  When people talk about him, now they say that “he lived a double life” and “he fooled everybody” with his natural charm hiding his apparent capability of murder.

When we cheer athletes on the field, we are cheering for many things; our team, the displays of athleticism, or maybe just to be part of the crowd.  Some people cheer for a specific player like LeBron James or Lionel Messi.  We follow these players so closely that we feel like we know them; we hold them up as an example telling people to, “be a team player like Tim Duncan,” or “play hard like Dustin Pedroia.”  It’s important to remember though that we don’t know them.

Some players are easy to like (Rob Gronkowski) and some are easy to hate (Alex Rodriguez).  A player’s popularity seems to rely on some unquantifiable combination of factors.  Maybe they are liked for their honesty or their will to win. Maybe others are hated for a certain aura of smugness, or the athlete may seem just too perfect.   Regardless of the public’s perception, professional athletes go to their job like the rest of us.  This creates a atmosphere where they are judged as role models and icons instead of the workers they really are.

It’s fine to appreciate how an athlete plays or marvel at their accomplishments, but you should remember that they didn’t sign up to be a role model for anyone.  Some may embrace that role and some may avoid the spotlight when possible.  We feel like we know these players and want them to act certain ways, but as the case of Aaron Hernandez reminds us, we don’t know many of them at all.