This gives the portrayal of athletes as heroes as they're able to achieve something inspirational for the audience. Furthermore that sportsmen are positive role models for society and form a unified society due to their ability to succeed when appearing unlikely. Also the power of the media to reflect this to society as they pass on the representation of athletes.
Off Screen: An article referring to the income of sportsmen.
http://www.progressiveu.org/142017-athletes-are-not-role-models
On the other hand, in the year 2004 only 46% of NFL players had a college degree [7]. In 2005 Michael Vick made $37.5 million [4], even though he dropped out of Virginia Tech after only three years to join the NFL [8]. He only lasted 6 years before being suspended for dog fighting and marijuana use. According to Jeff Benedict and Don Yaeger, the authors of “Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL”, 21% of NFL players have been charged with at least one serious crime [1]. These include battery, rape, murder, and drug charges. Why are we paying violent criminals six-figure salaries to practice their craft in the guise of a sport as NFL player?
Even respectable athletes who are upstanding members of the community contribute little to society but entertainment to the masses, tax dollars to the government, and hopefully part of their salary to charity. For example, Tiger Woods pulled in a grand total of $90 million in 2006 [5], and donated $9.5 million (approximately 10.5% of his income) to charity organizations, including his own philanthropy the Tiger Woods Foundation [6]. That sounds great on the surface, but he still has more than $80 million in annual income left over. Even after taxes, that is more money than one family could ever need.
Relations between on screen and off screen
By judging the two texts, they give contrasting ideas of whether athletes are heroes. Therefore it could be argued that 'on the screen' there is a better representation of athletes as heroes. However these two examples are two from many, there could be examples of 'on the screen' where athletes are portrayed in a bad light and a positive represenation of athletes 'off the screen'. Consequently, the key aspect of the research is the media and how they choose to portray athletes, in this case the institution plays a significant role.
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