Illustration by Ari Libenson
In early November, three UCLA athletes were arrested in China and accused of shoplifting. On November 7, the freshman basketball players LiAngelo Ball, Jaylen Hill, and Cody Riley were held in a Chinese police station overnight.
Recently, President Trump met with President Xi Jinping while on his twelve day trip around Asia and brought up the trio. The next day the players were charged with a misdemeanor and flown home to California, where they will be unable to travel with the team, join team practices, or suit up for home games. However, their time of suspension is unspecified, and, according to head coach Steve Alford, they will eventually “be permitted to join team workouts, practices, and meetings.”
All three of the athletes have since apologized for their actions and thanked Trump for his assistance in letting them return home with minimal consequences. Riley, one of the players, said in a press conference held in Los Angeles, “[I am] embarrassed and ashamed … for disappointing my family, my teammates, my coaches and the entire UCLA community … I take full responsibility for the mistake I have made.”
Theft is a serious offense in China and according to Amanda Erickson, a reporter for the Washington Post, “the punishment for theft ranges widely, from a couple of days to ten years in prison.” However, it appears that the UCLA athletes have gotten let off the hook this time.
In America, the idolization of sports players is clear. The influence sports players, and sports themselves have in mainstream media and consumer marketing is undeniable. Children beg their parents for cereal with their favorite athletes face, or a jersey with their name on it. Sports are a recurring topic in many movies and TV shows, and players like Lebron James, and Shaquille O’neal are even featured in movies and shows.
Professional athletes are held to a separate standard; A standard that allows players such as Michael Vick to be convicted in 2007 of animal cruelty, spend eighteen months in prison and then return to the National Football League (NFL) and play until 2016.
The NFL claims to hold their students to a higher standard of conduct than normal citizens, stating that it is not enough to abide the law, athletes must act in a way that promotes the values of the league. This is one of many examples that clearly violate the NFL’s code of conduct. If the NFL enforced its seemingly rigid standard of conduct, athletes would understand that there are consequences for their actions.
Additionally, players such as retired basketball player Amar’e Stoudemire can go their entire career making homophobic comments on and off the court with little to no effect on their portrayal in the media. The list continues with the racist gestures coming from the dugout of the 2017 world series champion Houston Astros, and the epidemic of ignored domestic violence within the NFL. The recent incident involving Cam Newton, however, shows that athletes are beginning to be held to higher standards. After remarking that it was funny to hear a female ask him about a route in football, yogurt company Dannon immediately dropped Newton from all advertising campaigns. Both Gatorade and the NFL issued statements reprimanding Newton’s actions, but neither officially punished the former MVP. Although the NFL and Gatorade could have taken more serious action, potentially punishing Newton, the overall response represents progress. There was nothing illegal about Newton’s comments, but due to athletes’ significant presence in popular culture, they need to be held to higher standards.
The three boys from UCLA and all other professional and college level athletes have young fans nation-wide that see what they do and idolize it, but because their idols are held to a separate standard, young people in the US are raised in a culture where the behavior of their idols include shoplifting, dog fighting, domestic abuse, and the use of offensive slurs. Admittedly, plenty of professional athletes are fantastic role models, and promote respectable values. Take Russell Wilson for example. The Seahawks quarterback has visited local children’s hospitals every Tuesday since he joined the NFL. Klayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher, is another example of a positive role model in sports. Inspired to provide support to African orphans, the pitcher founded Kershaw’s Challenge, a charity that encourages people to take initiative to help others. Since athletes are role models of future generations, they should face equal or even greater punishment for the things they do that are blatantly unacceptable.
When caught shoplifting in another country, they should be punished so their fans don’t see that as behavior to emulate. The same goes for other offenses; they should be punished as if the consequences of their actions affect people nation-wide. Ultimately, when you have the eyes and hearts of sports fans across America, they do.