Week 10 - Role Model or Felon?

Article 10

According to Wikipedia, Floyd Mayweather is an American professional boxer. He is a five-division world champion, where he won nine world titles in five different boxing weight classes. He is undefeated as a professional boxer, with 41 wins including 25 by way of knockout.  According to this article, Mayweather is accused of hitting and threatening his ex-girlfriend, stealing her cell phone and threatening two of their children during an argument at the woman's home last September. His lawyers deny wrongdoing on his behalf. Mayweather could face 34 years in state prison on the felony charges, which include grand larceny, coercion and robbery.  Big difference in descriptions..

In class, we touched on the expectation of professional athletes to be role models for our children.  Obviously, someone like Mayweather is not acting in a manner that we would like our children to mimic.  The question remains: Are pro athletes role models?  In my opinion, yes.  Some people say that the signed up to play sports, not to be a role model, but I believe that if you chose to put yourself in the spot light, you are signing up for a lot more than the sports team, or label you are representing.  There's no reason why anyone should be held to a higher standard in other aspects of their life if they aren't going to fulfill that standard in all aspects.  If a normal person were to be charged with these offenses, they would be in jail already, not being granted an extension until their hearing date.  To me, that's unfair, and isn't the way it should work.