Bart Scott On Treating Athletes As Role Models: "You Set Yourself Up For Disappointment"

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Bart Scott On Treating Athletes As Role Models: "You Set Yourself Up For Disappointment"

Bart Scott talks about the trouble with making athletes role models.

If the NFL isn't taking the opportunity to thoughtfully address the shitshow that is its current news cycle, at least some of the folks who cover the league have. Hannah StormCris Carter, and now Bart Scott have all discussed different themes throughout the league with care and eloquence. Here we have Bart Scott speaking about the problem with turning athletes into role models in a way Charles Barkley, who was on the set, never did.

CBS had a roundtable discussion and while most talked about the duty players have to act a certain way for those who idolize them, Scott talked about how misplaced that reverence is. "You set yourself up for disappointment" he says, "when you put your faith in someone that you don't know…it's up to the parents, it's up to the uncles to set an example and set my morals. I didn't need Hulk Hogan to tell me to eat my vitamins and say my prayers."

Scott then totally destroys Tony Gonzalez's point that there are good guys in the league and kids just need to choose the right role models. Before these stories, Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson were those good guys. "The support Ray Rice is getting is because of what he's done off the field. You can't allow athletes to be your role models all the time. You can appreciate what they've done…you can't just say 'OK, buy into everything that this guy says.'"

[CBS]