NEWS FEATURE: NFL’s Felonious Off-Season Renews Debate Over Role Modeling for Kids

c. 2000 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Mark Chmura wasn’t just a Green Bay Packers tight end, outspoken critic of Bill Clinton’s sexual misconduct and United Way example of what’s supposed to be good and noble and true about the National Football League. Chmura was a child’s hero, riding 11-year-old Paul Krumberger’s bicycle between the Lambeau […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Mark Chmura wasn’t just a Green Bay Packers tight end, outspoken critic of Bill Clinton’s sexual misconduct and United Way example of what’s supposed to be good and noble and true about the National Football League.

Chmura was a child’s hero, riding 11-year-old Paul Krumberger’s bicycle between the Lambeau Field locker room and the Packers’ practice field.


It’s a Green Bay tradition for players to accept bike rides from kids during summer training camp, and Paul got all the autographed photos he wanted last year. The highlight came when Chmura took off his leather receiving gloves, signed them and gave them to the boy.

Paul returned this summer to offer rides to players, but his former hero wasn’t there to pedal. Subsequently cut by the Packers, Chmura awaits trial on criminal charges in another blow to the image of what has been dubbed the National Felony League.

Chmura, in Paul’s words, “did something really bad to a woman when he was drunk.” A district attorney deemed it third-degree sexual assault, and since the woman was a 17-year-old girl, child enticement. If convicted, Chmura could face up to 40 years in prison.

Pictures of players in handcuffs and orange jail jumpsuits _ even players innocent until proven guilty _ have prompted concern over a serious public relations injury to one of America’s most popular sports.

But what about Paul, and thousands of children like him, vulnerable to around-the-clock media hype of football players marketed as mythic figures? If kids copy the on-the-field moves, flamboyant celebrations and excessive trash talking of their Sunday heroes, will they also imitate their off-the-field behavior?

Many players dismiss the connection, saying they don’t want to be role models. But the league reluctantly acknowledges a responsibility to kids.

“We want our players to be exemplary citizens,” NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said in an interview. “We want them to set high standards on the field as well as off the field. I think the reality is that they are role models, whether we like it or not.”


The Chmura case is made richer by the former player’s longtime criticism of President Clinton. Chmura refused to attend the traditional visit to the White House after the Packers won the Super Bowl in 1997. After the Monica Lewinsky scandal, he lambasted the president’s morals and the message they sent to children.

But the charges against Chmura are only one pro football crime story among several that have tarnished the NFL.

Others involve Rae Carruth, the former Carolina Panthers receiver awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges in the shooting death of his pregnant girlfriend, and Denver Broncos linebacker Bill Romanowski, who faces felony charges in a prescription drug case involving diet pills.

The Baltimore Ravens’ Ray Lewis, the NFL’s leading tackler last year, had murder charges dropped in May in exchange for a guilty plea to obstruction of justice in connection with a stabbing death after an Atlanta Super Bowl party. The NFL subsequently fined Lewis $250,000.

Psychologists say there is little doubt that in this era of around-the-clock sports coverage and slick marketing of stars, NFL players have some effect on the millions of children who idolize them. But the degree of influence is difficult to measure, and varies from child to child, dependent in part on their families.

“I believe strongly in the power of modeling behavior. That’s been demonstrated for years,” said Leonard Zaichkowsky, director of sports psychology at Boston University and a past president of the Association for Applied Sports Psychology for North America.


He added, however, that he has seen no research establishing a link between NFL and childhood behavior. Zaichkowsky said it’s similar to trying to prove that violent films make people violent. The best evidence may be anecdotal.

In Green Bay, child psychologist Bonnie Nussbaum said she hasn’t seen cases of post-Chmura trauma, but the story has been a stressful undercurrent for many of the children she counsels. She said it especially triggers old fears and responses of girls who have been victims of sexual abuse and tells boys, if at a subconscious level, that women are objects of domination.

“Some kids have the ego strength to resist that type of behavior,” Nussbaum said. “But other kids are more vulnerable and might follow.”

Michael Connor, a professor of psychology at California State University in Long Beach, where he teaches a class on sport behavior, said children will turn cynical as NFL players continue to let them down.

“It could very easily turn kids against the entire sport, the entire process and the NFL altogether,” Connor said. “The way kids think, they will generalize. They’ll say if Rae Carruth did it, everyone has done it, they just haven’t been caught yet.

“But my biggest concern is the disillusionment won’t stop with the football. Kids may think you bend the rules to do whatever you can get away with in society as a whole.”


Such cynicism was evident this summer in Green Bay, where muscled behemoths have been riding the bicycles of children since the 1960s. Ten boys sat on their bikes, waiting for the objects of their football worship and rattling off the Packers’ recent rap sheet. In addition to Chmura, four other Packers have been arrested since December, on charges of obstruction of justice (Antonio Freeman and Rodney Artmore), drunken driving and speeding (Marco Rivera) and possession of marijuana (De’Mond Parker).

Commenting on Chmura, Jason Wassenberg, 11, said, “I think he’s sick. That’s gross to do that. It’s not right.”

Added Chad Van DenLangenberg, 13: “I’m glad he got under arrest.”

“Everyone,” said 13-year-old Jacob Stalberger, “gets in trouble.”

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Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre downplayed his influence on children. “I don’t think NFL players should be role models for someone else’s kids,” Favre said. “The parents should be their own role models. It’s not our responsibility. We try to live life the right way, but nobody’s perfect.”

After the obstruction of justice charge in a December traffic accident that injured a woman, Freeman was sentenced to a year’s probation, a $1,000 fine and 50 hours of community service.

Freeman was a Wisconsin Department of Transportation spokesman for wearing seat belts, his likeness on 15,000 posters with the words, “Football is a game. Your life is not. Buckle up.” Police found that he wasn’t wearing his seat belt in the accident.

When asked if his conduct has hurt children, Freeman said no. “We all make mistakes,” he said. “We’re human.”


KRE END OKEEFE

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