Reply #24: Thank you for this...

[one_voice]

Then there's role model in the field, and role model as a human being, and those really are two different things in some cases. It's one thing for a kid who wants to be a great football player to study Vick's technique on the field and learn from that. It's another thing entirely for a kid to want to be just like him in EVERY way.

To use a less offensive and inflammatory example,* if I had a kid who wanted to be a great guitarist, I'd be fine with him or her listening to Keith Richards and Jimi Hendrix all day to learn the ropes, but I'd rather he or she not get the idea that dangerous levels of drug abuse are just fine, or even worse, something that made those guys even cooler or greater.


I said this upthread...admiring skill is different than admiring the person and wanting to "be them".