Many of these children grow up idolizing people like Jason Williams, Randy Moss, and O.J. Simpson, but what do you think they'll remember about them when they get old enough to start playing college sports? I don't know a single stat of Randy Moss's career, but I could give you a detailed description of his criminal history. Jason Williams, for instance, was accused of fatally shooting his limo driver in the chest. Jeffrey Schrank in his article Sport and the American Dream says, "When I was a graduate student at Columbia, the school had a basketball team. The best player on the team became a degenerate gambler, a convicted criminal." What kind of examp

Do we realize that sports affect us all in one way or another? Whether or not you like sports has nothing to do with the whether or not it affects you. Sports affect us everyday in our lives and it's starting to have an even greater affect on the youth in America, and it isn't a really great affect. Parents of these children continuously need to push education and stress the idea that sports should be a hobby and not control their lives. Parents also need to set good examples for their children about what good behavior is while cheering at a sporting event. Although the influence of children by professional athletes will never disappear, everyone should try their hardest to minimize the negative aspects and reinforce the positives.

Another way professional sports affect the youth sport leagues is through the fans. Parents are getting too excited at games and showing a great deal of unsportsmanlike attitudes. Who hasn't heard the story of the youth hockey dad who beat his son's coach to death for not playing the boy in the games? Now, instead of kids having good-natured fun and exercise, it has become normal for parents routinely to yell abuse at referees, themselves often teenagers (last year a soccer mom in Virginia was fined for assaulting a 14-year-old referee), and even to taunt other kids, besides fellow parents. The National Alliance for Youth Sports says that violence at children's sporting events has increased threefold in the past five years (NAYS).

Another problem with youth in sports today starts in the youngest stages. Everyone says what great teamwork children learn from youth sports, but is this really the case anymore? More and more children are trying to start out great as soon as they start playing, taking more risks for personal glory as oppo

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Approximate Word count = 1205
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)