My eight-year-old son loves football. While he doesn?t play on an official team, he plays at recess and on playdates with his friends. They tackle each other at top speed and roll around in a tangle of limbs. They memorize professional players’ names and statistics, and pretend to be them, emulating their swift moves on the field.
Not long ago, he and I were talking about how one of his favorite professional football players had been suspended from the NFL because of a domestic violence accusation. “I don’t get why he’s suspended,? my son said. ?That doesn?t have anything to do with football.”
Taking a deep breath, I explained to him that football players are people, just like us. They mess up; they make mistakes. He knows my history as a survivor of domestic abuse (in terms an eight-year-old child can understand), and I asked him how it would feel if he found out that a football player he admired had hurt one of his cousins or friends. I asked him to consider if that person should still have the privilege of being paid millions of dollars to play the game even though he has committed a crime.
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   Why athletes should never be role models for kids

I could almost see the wheels turning in my son?s h...