Billy: Found drunk in front of a Hooters restaurant, golfer John Daly was arrested on Sunday, Oct. 26, the Associated Press reported. That same day, the AP also reported that eight NFL players had failed drug tests. Many of us have used drugs. Many of us have been drunk, been to Hooters and been drunk at Hooters. However, the public especially scrutinizes the irresponsible choices of professional athletes, partly because many people look up to athletes as role models.

A person’s decision to idolize an athlete is just that: an individual choice. An athlete’s job is to compete and excel in his or her sport. People look up to athletes because the public puts athletes on a pedestal above the rest of society. Yet because athletes are glorified figures, the public assumes a right to dictate their choices. The public does not have the right to assign social responsibility to a people in order for those people to satisfy someone else’s view of them.

Andy: I actually think athletes should be role models. Almost everybody is a role model to somebody else, and, without delving too much into Jacques Lacan’s theory of the gaze, the public eye mutes all our behavior in some way or another, athletes included. However, Billy, you said that society puts athletes on a pedestal, but I would argue that today’s athletes are more often pulled down into more dangerous groups or events than they ever were before. Athletes increasingly brawl, get drunk and sometimes even fire guns. Is it really that much to ask them to stop doing that, not just for their fans, but for themselves?

Athletes aren’t the only public figures we ask to be role models either. Any public official is put on your “pedestal,” yet you don’t see McCain or Obama drunk at Hooters, and they’re under a lot more scrutiny than John Daly. However, athletic role models are unique in what they can do for a community. Just look at the Portland Blazers over the last ten years. Before 2004, they were a disgrace to Portland, with a new arrest seemingly every week. They became one of the worst teams in the league, nobody watched their games and nobody even wanted to own the Rose Garden. Now, they are continually getting better, tickets are nearly impossible to get and you see Greg Oden, Brandon Roy and Lamarcus Aldridge at charity events all over town. Athletic role models like the current Blazers also inspire our kids to be physically active, which is something we should treasure. If we suddenly permitted “Jail Blazer” behavior because we thought it was unfair to expect athletes not to shoot up strip clubs, then nobody would watch sports anymore and our kids would suffer.

Billy: Poor behavior of athletes would indeed be bad for sports. But the question is not about the welfare of the industry in which the athletes work. The question is about the athletes as individuals.

A public office requires good behavior because elected officials work for the people. Their only job is to represent the people, including the voters who opposed them. In contrast, an agreement to play sports does not oblige athletes to represent a city’s people. It is heart-warming that many athletes do feel a special connection to the city they play in, but we fabricate the notion that they are public servants simply because we are attracted to what they do.

Because athletes are citizens just like everyone else, they do not and should not have license to ignore laws. Yet for that same reason, the public cannot hold them to higher standards.

Andy: I do think that being a role model is part of the job, though. Keep in mind that the athletes do not employ themselves, but are rather the faces of entire organizations. When teams sign players to contracts, those players are obligated to present themselves in a professional way. If players begin to act like the “Jail Blazers,” then they are losing their employers money and they will lose their jobs. In that way, being a role model, or at least performing to a code of behavior, is part of the athlete’s job, and considering that these organizations spend millions of dollars on these players, I don’t think behaving properly off the court is too much to ask.

The fans will always have a choice of whether they want to idolize a player or not, but the athletes will always be tied to contractual agreements to behave. The reason I mentioned the elected officials before is because, as you said, they work for the people and the same is true in sports. Fans might not directly vote for the players who get to play, but their response in ticket sales is what ultimately determines which athletes organizations will favor with playing time and big salaries.