Role model—really?

So of course the press has been all over Steve McNair’s shooting, and I have been amazed at the amount of praise the man is getting, from family and friends alike on the different sites covering this story. Of particular interest, and sadness to me, is how lots of people are saying what a “role model” he was, along with being a “model citizen,” and that he loved kids and blah blah blah.

I guess I am having an issue with the press highlighting these glowing attributes they’re spewing out, along with the obvious whoopity doooooo NFL stats, because to me, a role model is NOT a man who cheats on his wife with someone technically old enough to be his daughter. A role model is NOT a father who was on the verge of voluntarily splitting up his family for this. A “role model for kids” is NOT someone I respect when he chooses to emotionally/ psychologically harm his own kids by having an affair with another woman. Even if they didn’t know before this past weekend, they know now that their father was in a major affair, headed towards divorce court to marry this girl he shared his last minute on earth with.

And is a “model citizen” basically classified as a celebrity/athlete who can do whatever he wants, break the rules, and ruin his family, stain his legacy by how he was killed, and yet still be praised and adored, with hardly any ink being devoted to how wrong all this is? His wife was quoted as being “distraught” in one of very few things said about her. Shocker . . .

Is it just me?

I’m not saying the man didn’t do anything good with his life, money and influence, because I really don’t know. He always seemed to be very pleasant in interviews etc. on tv, but a “role model” given what happened over the weekend?

Really?