Can We Still Look Up to Sports Stars?

It has not been a good weekend for sport when it comes to its standing as a breeding ground for role models.

In New Zealand, All Black winger Julian Savea was charged with domestic assault - he was subsequently released on bail but given a restraining order by his estranged partner and child - and up and coming Blues star, Francis Sai'ili has had to appear at the Auckland District Court on drink driving charges.

Savea and Sai'ili are two of our brightest stars although Savea risks losing the reputation he built up last year as one of the All Blacks' rising stars. Some even hailed Savea as the new Lomu - he even appeared for the Wellington City Council on their anti-abuse campaigns.

Savea seems a lovely fellow and I think more than meets the eye with sports stars especially when they have families so young - Savea already has a young daughter at the tender age of 22. They are already under so much pressure from the public to perform - plus their reputations mean they are very vulnerable to any attempt by people of not so good intentions to destroy their name just for a bit of publicity, i.e. Benji Marshall's alleged incident at McDonald's in Sydney.

I think New Zealand rugby has done a tremendous job in guiding young players through all the success they achieve so young. They realise that those players will make mistakes but support them all the way not because they have the talent but because they realise they are human beings like all of us and that the mistakes they make will make them better individuals and possibly good examples for future youngsters. Yes, the process isn't perfect and will never be, but the environment that New Zealand rugby has conjured up is one of the safest for a young budding professional athlete to be in.

As for Savea, we'll have to wait and see what the Wellington District Court decides in a week's time. Savea was clearly not quite at the races on Friday night against the Force and the reason is now known to all of us, but I think he will bounce back and be an even better player than he was prior to his misdemeanour.

But the biggest bombshell of bad behaviour by a sports athlete this weekend came at Anfield on Sunday, when clear to the TV viewer, Liverpool's mercurial forward, Luis Suarez, bit Chelsea defender, Branislav Ivanovic, almost unprovoked.

This is not the first major misdemeanour of Luis Suarez's career - he was found guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra last season of course and raised eyebrows when he said he purposely handled the ball for Uruguay in their World Cup quarterfinal against Ghana. In fact, Luis Suarez has been found guilty of biting a player in the past when he was playing for Ajax.

Suarez looks set for yet another lengthy ban and question marks have been raised over the player's future at Liverpool. What will be in Suarez's favour at Anfield is his talent and goal scoring record this season - he is topping the charts at the moment in the Premier League. But after two major misdemeanours at his time at Anfield, will the owners tolerate having such a controversial figure at the club?

I hope so as we all know that Suarez is a mercurial figure and he is definitely a popular person amongst his teammates. He has passion but he appears incapable of controlling his passion at stressful times.

Liverpool could learn aplenty from the way Manchester United handled the aftermath of Eric Cantona's famous kung fu kick. I thought that was handled well and Cantona returned a better and more influential figure on United's success than ever.

So can we look up to these sports stars with all these troubles? I guess I don't really have to worry about looking up to these guys as they are my age and those days of idolizing a player  are over. However, I am thinking of the kids growing up right now and seeing  these guys play and wondering if they can look up to these guys.

The fact is no one is perfect and what really will set them out and make them true role models is the way they react after going through such tribulations. I think if I was to go for a role model, Piri Weepu would be mine - he had plenty of disciplinary troubles early on in his career and reached the low of lows of his career when he missed out on the 2007 Rugby World Cup. But he burst back better than ever and in his older days, has shown mana and strength.

Definitely not a worthy candidate for role model. Anymore. 

So there you have it, we can look up to sports stars but I'd say keep an eye out on those stars who bounce back from adversity to achieve success - legally please unlike that hero in many people's eyes, Lance Armstrong.