I agree with Barkley's statement that athletes shouldn't necessarily be role models. As a parent, you want your child to look up to someone who has the qualities that you would want your child to have some day (honesty, integrity, etc...) Now I'm not saying that athletes don't have these qualities, some do and in fact some professional athletes might make a fine role model. However, as Barkley says in the commercial, kids shouldn't look up to athletes simply because they can "dunk a basketball." The reason most kids look up to these athletes isn't because of the qualities they possess, but rather because they are in the spotlight, which in my mind doesn't automatically make someone a good role model. You might be able to walk up to any random person on the street and that person might possess just as good or even better qualities than any random professional athlete, so why not have your kid look up to them? It is because that random Joe isn't in the spotlight like athletes are. Now, since athletes do have the spotlight on them, should they try to act like a model citizen? Probably, but they are also human, they aren't perfect just like the rest of us, and they make mistakes too. I once read an article that talked about the double standard placed upon athletes in regards to legal/off-the-field issues. If an athlete gets pulled over for a DUI, all of a sudden its "oh my god, how could they do this? What about all the kids that look up to him/her, how do we explain this to them?" But if uncle Joe gets pulled over for a DUI, parents will tell their kids that he's still a good person, that he just made a mistake and all of us make mistakes. There seems to be a double standard placed on athletes in situations such as this that it is almost laughable.