Athletes

For thousands of years, people have been competing against each other. These competitive events eventually came to be known as sports, and the competitors as athletes. Today, many people perceive these athletes as unintelligent, immoral, and disrespectful, but some sources prove that they are charitable, hard-working, and caring. Looking at our world today, athletes fill several important roles. To many, they provide a great source of entertainment. To others, watching another compete is a great motivator to get up and give it a go for themselves. In addition, to hundreds of thousands of the world’s youth, athletes act as role models that provide someone to look up to both on the field and off. Fortunately, qualifying as an athlete is not difficult. One must be dedicated to a competitive physical activity, which ranges from jousting to swimming and includes everything in between. One must also have a specific goal in mind, whether it is a specific time in a race or winning a championship, and one must also own all the required equipment. Athletes range from greats like Michael Jordan to a local Pee-Wee Football player. Unfortunately, a number of stereotypes have developed against athletes, and no larger stereotype exists than the idea that every single athlete is as intelligent as a bag of bricks. Terms like “dumb jock” and “numbskull” have even formed to refer specifically to athletes. Comics such as “Archie” and several films, including __Rocky__ and __The Benchwarmers,__ include athletes whose lack of intelligence and success in sports are highly entertaining. Benchwarmers Trailer- [] Many people also only see athletes as cheaters, people that are willing to do anything to get an advantage without any regard to the cost. Lance Armstrong, a world champion biker, is currently under scrutiny for his use of a dangerous performance enhancement technique called blood doping, in which he draws his own blood before a bike race only to inject it back into his arms to boost the number of red blood cells and improve aerobic capacity. Another notable example of a deceiving athlete is Marion Jones, an Olympic gold-medalist who admitted to the use of tetrahydrogestrinone, a risky steroid that commonly results in hirsutism, or the excessive growth of hair on a woman’s body where it does not normally grow. All five of her Olympic medals were revoked, and she lost all ability to compete in future athletic events. The last common stereotype against athletes is the level of disrespect and violence that they possess. Tiger Woods, once thought of as one of sports’ greatest men, was revealed to be extremely disrespectful to women ( []). __The Lost Dogs__ by Jim Gorant is an emotional tale that chronicles the recovery of several dogs that were personally abused by Michael Vick, a once-popular football quarterback. Mike Tyson, once a legend in the world of professional boxing, disgraced himself from the sport when he chomped down on a competitor’s ear mid-match not once, but twice! ( []) All of these rare real life examples have unfortunately led to a general acceptance of athletes in film and books as dumb, reckless, and rude. __Revenge of the Nerds__ is a film based on the mistreatment of intelligent young students by members of the football team, who consistently bully them in outrageous degrees. These films, which are only meant to entertain, include nearly all negative associations with athletes and unfortunately cause more and more people to develop the idea that every single athlete fills must fill these stereotypical roles Fortunately, these sources are the exception, not the rule. The number of athletes that sacrifice their bodies by using risky performance enhancers is miniscule compared to the millions upon millions of athletes in the world. Also, many athletes retire from sports only to pursue greater fields, including Emmitt Smith, a record-setting football player who has since established a large financial support business. As for the notion about all athletes being dumb, it is possible to name a number of intelligent athletes, but Bill Bradley stands out as the paragon of athletic intelligence. After earning an MA at Princeton University, he was selected for the gold-medal U.S. basketball team at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. He then played for the New York Knicks from 1967-1977, leading them to two NBA championships in 1970 and 1973 and earning an induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982. He then went on to represent New Jersey as a member of the U.S. Senate from 1979-1997, and proved to the world an athlete can be both great and smart. Today, even the Senior Valedictorian at Hebron High School, Veronica Montgomery, is an active member in school cross country. Professional athletes, from Emmitt Smith to Lebron James, also make substantial donations to charity on a regular basis. Even recreational athletes take huge steps to improve the world. Events such as the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure draw crowds of thousands all willing to stand up and aid the search for the cure of diseases like breast cancer. These events help us realize the steps our athletes are willing to take to improve both themselves and the world around them. Just like many other misunderstood archetypes, noticing the truth is the first step in changing one’s view to see athletes in these positive ways. Athletes simply help our world go round, and they are not as bad as one might think. Their influence will continue to improve the world, but a negative perception easily holds them back. It’s necessary to understand athletes for their generosity, effort, and compassion before showing one’s own contempt to them. As many continue to think poorly about athletes, one must also envision a world completely without them.
 * __ Please Understand Me __**

-Ryan Fritz

**__Works Cited __**
 * Basu, Moni. "Tiger Woods Apologizes as Gossip Magazine Reports Affair." //Featured Articles from CNN//. Cable News Network, 2 Dec. 2009. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. .
 * "Classic Comic Strip- Moosed Up!" //Archie Comics//. Archies Comics, 18 Nov. 2011. Web. 27 Nov. 2011. .
 * "Emmit Smith- Bio." //Emmitt Smith Official Website - Home//. AWS Sports. Web. 1 Dec. 2011. .
 * Encyclopædia Britannica. "Bill Bradley Biography." //Famous Biographies & TV Shows - Biography.com//. A+E Television Networks, LLC. Web. 1 Dec. 2011. .
 * Gorant, Jim. //The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption//. New York: Gotham, 2010. Print.
 * Karlinsky, Neal. "Lance Armstrong Doping Investigation Widens as 3 Cycling Teammates Speak Out." //ABCNews.com: Daily News, Breaking News and Video Broadcasts - ABC News//. ABC News Co., 23 May 2011. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. .
 * "Revenge of the Nerds- Trailer." //YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.// Alex280, 12 July 2006. Web. 27 Nov. 2011. .
 * Shipley, Amy. "Marion Jones Admits to Steroid Use." //Washington Post: Breaking News, World, US, DC News & Analysis//. The Washington Post, 5 Oct. 2007. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. .
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Weinberg, Rick. "30: Tyson Bites Holyfield's Ear in Rematch." //ESPN: The Worldwide Leader In Sports//. ESPN Entertainment Ventures. Web. 27 Nov. 2011. <http://sports.espn.go.com>.